Main Idea: The potential we are to achieve comes from the power we receive.

Many of you, I’m sure, have been moved by the recent Ken Burns presentation on World War II called "The War." World War II was fought between 1941-1945 and involved the United States and her allies against Germany, Japan, and Italy. Ken Burns described World War II as "A Necessary War" and it was. The nations that were our enemy at that time were successful in controlling virtually the entire world. At one time one of the most dangerous shipping lanes was from Galveston, Texas to Jacksonville, Florida. That is how closely our own nation was affected. It seemed that the hope of our ability to withstand our enemies was growing dimmer and dimmer. Our enemies had been manufacturing for years tremendous weapons and machinery. We trained our soldiers in 1941 with rifles made in 1903 and still had thousands of horses ready to pull ammunition caissons. We were no match for those who threatened to destroy us.

Yet what we had along with our Allies was an understanding of the absolute shear necessity of this war. There was an understanding from the President to the private that defeating our enemies was the only hope for freedom. It would be that sense of necessity that would compel this nation’s sons to leave their homes and families and fight and die in the jungles of Guadalcanal, the beaches of Normandy, the forests of Belgium, the sands of Iwo Jima and in the air and oceans that surround them. It was clearly understood that victory wasn’t assured until there was complete and total surrender. That sense of necessity gave them power to achieve the freedom that we cherish and treasure today and one that must never be forgotten.

While we revere and honor those who saw the necessity of a war for human liberty, we are, unfortunately, challenged to see the command of Jesus to secure the eternal destinies of people with the same urgency and necessity. We said last week that achieving our maximum potential is fulfilling the Great Commission in our context. We said that it is God’s desire and passion for our church and for us individually to understand the urgency and necessity of making disciples, followers of Jesus Christ, from people of all kinds. We said that the degree and level we do that is the degree to which we are achieving our maximum potential.

I’m sure that many of you left here concerned and committed to applying the need for prayer for effective outreach. Yet I would say that many others left here unmoved and unpersuaded by what was said. "Pastor, we’ve heard all that before. We’re glad you felt that way but you’ll get over it and we need you to just keep things like they are." You may have felt that there are other things I need to care about that are a more urgent priority. You might have even wondered if there were ever a group of people who believed in the absolute necessity and urgency of fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus.

In our text for today we meet a group of people who believed with everything in them that fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus was a non-negotiable for their lives. They were people compelled by the call of Jesus to go and make disciples of all kinds of people and nothing short of death was going to stop them. All they needed to fulfill what Jesus commanded was the power of God’s Holy Spirit to enable them to do it. They knew that achieving their potential came from the power they were to receive from God and God alone. What I want us to see today is that the potential we are to achieve comes from the power we need to receive. Fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission will be determined not by our striving in our own strength but by our receiving the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

The setting for our story in Acts 4 comes some months after the giving of God’s Holy Spirit or what was called the Day of Pentecost. One of the miraculous events that had occurred as a result of God’s Spirit’s coming upon the followers of Jesus was the healing of a man who could not walk. This man was forty years old and had been unable to walk since he was born. He has spent all his life begging at the gate of the Temple in Jerusalem. However, one day Peter and John saw the man and when he asked for money they commanded him to walk. He immediately was healed and his miraculous healing created both praise to God by the people and confusion and concern by the Jewish religious leaders. (Acts 3)

In order to gain control of the moment, the religious leaders threw Peter and John in jail. They spent at least one night in jail and were then brought out to be questioned by the religious leaders. They wanted to know, "By what power or what name did you do this?" (Acts 4:7). Peter’s response was fueled by the Holy Spirit and he told them clearly that it was done under the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 4:8ff). The religious leaders were astonished that anyone would resist their authority and Acts 4:13 says, "The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus." The religious leaders knew they couldn’t deny the miraculous healing so they felt they needed to stop the speaking and teaching of the disciples. They tell them that they were never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. In response, Peter tells them, "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:20) The leaders threatened them further and then let them go.

It is what Peter and John did next that draws us to our focus for this morning. What they did was what we must do if we would have the power that God desires for us to achieve our maximum potential. They realized that they were in desperate need of God’s help and in turn prayed earnestly for God to empower them to fulfill the commission he gave to them. As a result, the Holy Spirit filled them with a fresh experience of his presence and the Scripture says, "…they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly" (Acts 4:31b).

One thing is paramount for our understanding about their actions: The commission of Christ to go and make disciples was not optional for them! Jesus had told them just before returning to heaven that "repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all the nations" (Luke 24:47) and that they were to be proclaimers of this truth. Yet before they would speak they needed his "power from on high" (Luke 24:49). He told them in Acts 1 to wait for the gift and baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). When they were confused about what would happen next, he told them, "But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."(Acts 1:8) Days later God’s Spirit did come upon them to empower them and they immediately began telling his story and fulfilling his commission to make disciples.

Here were people, plain and ordinary men and women, just like us, who when Jesus told them that they were to be his witnesses to the world and they would do so under the power of his Holy Spirit—they believed him. They were people who were transformed by his commission and strengthened by his power so much so that Peter and John were living proof as Luke said, "These men have been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13). When it appeared that their ability to fulfill what Jesus told them to do was threatened, they threw themselves upon God and knew that if he didn’t answer, they were finished! God did answer and the effect was undeniable. (Acts 4:33)

So let me ask you: Do you believe that the commission of Jesus to make disciples is something that we as a church and you as an individual believer must fulfill? I struggled with this two weeks ago as I began preparing this message. As I read the story in Acts 4 over and over, what gripped me was that for them there was nothing else more important. Telling the story of Jesus was what they would live and die for. There was nothing else. Yet, for us, we do so much and so many things that somehow the one thing that compelled them becomes a novelty rather than an all-consuming priority. I had to ask myself the question: "What do I do with this realization and emotion?" The answer is that we do what these disciples did by admitting our desperation, praying together, recognizing God’s willingness and receiving his overwhelming power in the Holy Spirit.

Remember that these disciples were persuaded that they had one mission or purpose for their lives and that was to fulfill Christ’s commission. When faced with the threats of the religious leaders they knew they could not stop speaking and carrying out the commission but neither could they do that in their own power. They knew they needed to continue the mission but knew they had a desperate need of God’s power to enable them to do it.

I wonder sometimes just how desperate we are about our obedience to fulfill Christ’s commission to make disciples. Recently I have read statistics that confront the harsh reality that the Christian church in America is desperately in need of renewal and revival. One author said, "The church (in America) as a whole continues to experience decline and the unchurched increase." It is known that for all that Southern Baptist Convention churches do with buildings and budgets that 70% are plateaued or declining. Also, the number of baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention has been relatively flat for the last fifty years. And the "growth" that most churches like ours have is really people coming from other churches, not a result of making an impact on the unchurched. George Hunter said that currently, "Less than one in 20 churches would be growing substantially by conversion growth." (Resource: Comeback Churches, p. 24-27)

I believe our greatest obstacle to moving our church forward into the places of potential that God has for us is our reluctance to recognize the desperate need to fulfill Christ’s commission to make disciples! When we understand the vast needs and numbers of people who are far from God in our community, much less our nation and our world, we will admit that the need is desperate. We, as well, will hunger for God’s power to enable us accomplish this in his power, not our own. How willing are you, how willing are we, to recognize the desperate need we have to obey his commission to make disciples and how desperate are we for power from God to do that?

What did this group of Christ followers do with their desperation? The answer was they prayed earnestly for God to help them do what he had told them to do! For this group of early followers of Christ prayer was the only thing they knew to do when they were faced with the desperate need of obedience to Christ’s commission. Every time something came along that tried to stop them, they prayed. If it were the Jewish leaders or complaining church members, they prayed so that they would have the power and clarity to do what Jesus said. Acts 4:24 says that after Peter and John told them of the problems that faced them and the threats of the Jewish leaders, "Then all the believers were united as they lifted their voices in prayer." Their praying was not a "church growth" strategy or a way to manipulate God; it was out of desperation. It was their singular focus. The challenge of Christ’s command compelled them to pray. Fulfilling the commission wasn’t optional. They could not stop "telling about the wonderful things" they had seen and heard. (Acts 4:20) The only thing they knew to do was pray!

In a book called Comeback Churches, which describes principles that 300 churches used to achieve their full potential, prayer was a consistent factor in all of them. They believed that "prayer changes things, including us, our churches and our communities." They understood, as these disciples did, that "the Holy Spirit’s presence and power is released through intentional prayer." (Comeback Churches, p. 69-70) Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, said, "Pastors and churches have to get uncomfortable enough to say, ‘We are not New Testament Christians if we don’t have a prayer life.’ This conviction makes us squirm a little, but how else will there be a breakthrough with God?" (Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, p. 50) Jesus said that because the potential is so great and the workers are few that we are to "pray to the Lord…ask him to send out more workers" (Matt. 9:37-38).

In a very practical way this Tuesday night we are offering a time of prayer for our church and community. There is, as well, a prayer class being offered on Monday night for persons wanting to know more. There is a prayer time offered on Wednesday night for you to apply this principle. I don’t know what God wants to do through us but what I do know is that choosing to not achieve our potential isn’t an option and that intentional, focused prayer is the vehicle through which God will direct us and empower us.

These disciples faced a desperate need and prayed to a God who was more than willing to respond to the cry of their heart. (Acts 4:24-30). They prayed to a God they knew to be the "Sovereign Lord," the One who was in full control of the entire situation. They prayed to be One they knew to be the "Creator of heaven and earth…." His creative power was not limited by the threats of the religious leaders. They prayed to the One who had set everything in motion and that what was happening "occurred according to your eternal will and plan." They had one request: " And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give your servants great boldness in their preaching. Send your healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus." (Acts 4:29-30) They prayed on the basis of whom they knew God to be and knew that he was the One who could overcome their opposition and empower them to obey his command.

Do you believe that God is willing to respond to the cry of our heart to achieve our maximum potential? Don’t you believe that if God is longing to save people who are bound for hell, separated by his love, that he will empower us to do what he asks? Don’t you see that if he is the One who has commanded us to go and make disciples, then he is the One who will work through us to do that? Don’t you understand that if God through Christ established his church then he is willing and able to equip us for all that he has for us to accomplish! Our prayer is not addressed to a reluctant, uncaring, stubborn tyrant. No, it is spoken to One who has waited, longed, ached and hurt for his people to turn to him for the power to do what he wants. It is never a question of if God is willing to answer the cry of our heart to obey him; the question is are we willing to pray for the power.

They didn’t have to wait long for God’s answer because when they finished praying they experienced a power that was overwhelming. (Acts 4:31, 33) Hear again what happened. " After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they preached God's message with boldness…And the apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's great favor was upon them all. (Acts 4: 31, 33)

Now I need you to listen to me very closely. I realize that when you hear those verses you may say, "Well that type of experience was then and not now," or, "Are you telling me that if we start praying buildings will start shaking?" If God chooses to demonstrate his power in such physical, tangible ways, then who am I to say he cannot? But what I want you to see is that they were "filled with the Holy Spirit and they preached God’s message with boldness" (v. 31) and they "gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (v. 32). They didn’t keep coming back to God saying, "Remember that time you did that whole shaking thing? Can you do that again because I’m not feeling it."? What they needed was "boldness" and "power" in their obedience to his command, not a repeat performance of the evidence of the Spirit.

I am not asking God to show his presence and power by the Richter Scale; I am asking God to show his presence and power in the person of the Holy Spirit by enabling our effectiveness to fulfill his command to make disciples. Our effectiveness isn’t going to be measured by emotion but by our boldness to dare to believe that God desires First Baptist Church to fulfill the Great Commission through you and me! I am not going to tell God how he demonstrates we experience his Spirit’s overwhelming power. I just know that we can’t be what he asks without that power!

Last week we were reminded of what Jesus dreams about when he thinks of his church reaching its maximum potential. But the real question is can you imagine what it would be like if our church was fulfilling the Great Commission and truly achieving maximum potential by making disciples? Can you imagine the community in which we live being genuinely thankful for our church? Can you imagine city leaders valuing our church’s friendship and participation in the community—even asking for it? Can you imagine the neighborhoods around our church talking behind our back about "how good it is" to have our church in the area because of the tangible witness we’ve offered them of God’s love? Can you imagine a large number of our church members actively engaged in, and passionate about, community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels they never thought possible? Can you imagine the community actually changing (Proverbs 11:11) because of the impact of our church’s involvement? Can you imagine many in our city, formerly cynical and hostile toward Christianity, actually praising God for our church and the positive contributions our members have made in Jesus’ name? Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true? (Adapted from Comeback Churches, p. 218)

All that is possible if we dare to receive the power of God’s Spirit to achieve our maximum potential!

Sunday, September 30, 2007 a.m.

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org