Jesus Was a Charismatic? Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. The whole point is this, Jesus depended on the power of the Spirit. That's how He did miracles, that's how He did prophecy, that's how He preached, that's how He prayed, that's how He resisted sin, that's how He resisted Satan. If Jesus depended on the power of the Spirit, how much more should we? Welcome to a new week of teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. When scientists began experimenting with electricity in the 1800s, a whole new world of possibilities opened up. This incredible power source had always existed, but they'd never before been able to tap into it. Today Pastor J.D. describes a power source that you and I have access to that'll transform your spiritual life and lead you to a whole new world of possibilities.

As always, you can catch up on previous messages by going to jdgreer.com. But now let's dive right in. There is an extraordinary power, a stream of power that runs throughout the Bible that I want you to be able to tap into so that whether you're parenting your children, loving your spouse, sharing Christ with the person you work with, or learning how to deal with sin in your own life, you are not facing this on your own. You are tapping into the limitless power of God that is at your disposal. That is what it means to be a charismatic.

Again, don't associate it with the way we painted it in one stream of the church. It just means that we live and move in the power of the Spirit. Today what I'm going to try to show you is that Jesus operated in the power of the Spirit. The Gospel of Luke, Luke goes to great lengths to show you that. One of the themes that runs through the Gospel of Luke is that the miraculous stuff that Jesus did, the source of his power was the Holy Spirit. Now I know that a lot of you hear that and your initial reaction is, well, I thought the source of his power was the fact that he was God.

Yes. But Luke goes to great lengths to show you that a lot of the miraculous stuff that he did, whether that's healing, seen in the people's hearts, preaching and praying with power, resisting sin, that he did in the power of the Spirit. The Bible teaches us in places like Philippians 2, something called the kenosis. And what it means literally is the emptying. And it means that when Jesus was on earth, he emptied himself, Paul says in Philippians 2, of access to his Godness. Now that didn't mean that he ceased to be God. It just means that at times he limited himself, he limited his access to his God power.

So here's the question. If Jesus limited access to his Godness, how did Jesus do a lot of the things that he did? And Luke's answer is the power of the Spirit. And that is great news for you.

Let me tell you why. Because you weren't born the son or daughter of God. Jesus did not do what he did in the power of his own Godness. He limited his access to that. He did it in the power of the Spirit. That's the same access.

That's the same power that you have access to. You see, Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke, and he also wrote what other book? What other book?

He wrote the book of Acts. That's right. And they actually go together.

It's kind of one unit. And what Luke does in Luke and Acts is he draws these parallels between the experiences of Jesus and the experiences of the early church. And he shows you that both are experiencing, in strikingly similar ways, the power of the Spirit. Luke draws a number of different parallels between things that Jesus would do in the power of the Spirit and the same identical things that the church would do in the power of the Spirit. Here's a handful of them, okay?

If you're going to take notes, jot these down. Miracles. It would be letter A, miracles. Luke 5.17, Jesus heals a paralytic. But in Luke's account of this miracle, he includes the strangest little phrase. Luke 5.17, and the power of the Lord was present to heal. Now, I used to read that verse and be like, well, of course it was present to heal.

Jesus was there. But what Luke is showing you is that there was a power that Jesus would tap into the power of the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit's power was there, Jesus would use that power to heal. Well, in the same way, in the book of Acts, the power of the Spirit comes upon the church at different times, enabling them to do some pretty miraculous things. Sometimes it's to interpret tongues. Sometimes, you know, it's to see into heaven. Paul is able to do the power of the Spirit.

Acts chapter 13 says to blind one of the people who's about to persecute him. The Spirit of God teleports Philip across the desert. All kinds of miraculous stuff. So, miracles.

Here's your second thing. Prophecy. Prophecy. And by prophecy, I mean speaking God's blessing into people's lives or making God's plans known to other people. What you see throughout Luke is that the Spirit of God comes onto various people and God gives them wisdom and insight and they'll speak into somebody's life something God wants them to know.

Then you see it happening in Acts. You see, for example, when the Holy Spirit baptizes the church, it says that the first thing they do is they begin to prophesy. And Peter stands up and says, this is what the prophet Joel prophesied about all of you.

That you would, the sons and daughters would prophesy. You see, all these places throughout Acts where the Spirit of God comes on somebody and they say, this is what God wants you to know right now. A was miracles, B was prophecy, C is preaching. Preaching. Luke chapter 4 verse 14 says about Jesus before his first sermon. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.

And guess what he does? He preaches a sermon. The same language is used when people in the early church preached. Peter was filled with the Spirit in Acts 2 and he preached and 3,000 were saved. Peter and John, Acts 4, were filled with the Spirit and they preached and defended what was going on in the church. Acts 7 says that Stephen was filled with the Spirit and he preached a sermon that ended up with him being stoned.

Not stoned like the drunk sins, but stoned like the rocks coming at you since. And that sermon was used by God to convert the apostle Paul. Jesus told the apostles, in fact, they were to depend on the Spirit that he preached with when they preached. I shared this verse with you a couple weeks ago. It's one of my favorites as a pastor.

Luke chapter 12 verse 11. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or even what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. This is, by the way, this is what I'm muttering to myself when I'm up here on stage and we're waiting on the bumper thing to end. I'm usually muttering to myself something. I will say this.

You can watch my lips. I'm like, I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm saying that over and over to myself because I'm reminding myself that when I stand up here, that I have absolutely no ability to do anything in your life. I cannot set you free. I cannot build your faith. I cannot show you God. The Spirit of God has to do it. Because only the Spirit of God gives us the ability to preach and to teach, whether we're doing it from the stage or whether we're doing it with our children or one-on-one, with a coffee shop, with a friend.

All right. Here's letter D. Inacting justice. Inacting justice. Luke 4 18. Jesus started his first sermon like this.

Listen. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, to the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

What are all those things that he's talking about? They're what some people call justice, what others call mercy. It's getting involved in the pain of people's lives and setting them free from oppression and healing them where they hurt. That's how Peter summarized, by the way, Jesus' ministry. Acts 10. He says Jesus went around Israel doing good and healing. Well, in the same way, the apostles themselves used the power of the Spirit to set captives free.

Acts chapter 16 is an example. Paul goes into Philippi. There's a servant girl there. The servant girl has a demon. And evidently, it was an entertaining demon because the people who owned the servant girl used to set her up like a circus act and charge people admission so they could watch her froth at the mouth and say kind of crazy things. So Paul sees this.

He goes over to her. He cast the demon out of her, which delivered her spiritually and economically. Right? That was what the Spirit of God came upon Paul to do. In the same way, he comes on you. When you are involved, liberating people from injustice and liberating them from captivity, liberating them from pain, you are, or at least you can be, filled by the Spirit of God.

That's what I tell my kids this all the time. I'm like, you know what? When you at school are sticking up for somebody that is being picked on, at that moment, the Spirit of God wants to fill you and wants to use you because that's the Spirit that Jesus possessed. He set captives free. He spoke liberty to people. He spoke life to people.

And when you get involved with the oppressed, you have a special access to the Spirit of God, enabling justice. Here's letter E, filling with joy. The fifth thing, filling with joy. Luke 10, 21, Jesus says, in that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Have you ever rejoiced in the Holy Spirit? Acts 2 says that when the Spirit of God came upon the first church, the result was a sense of awe that came upon every soul and a sense of gladness that filled their hearts.

Chapter 2, verse 42. So the Spirit of God in Jesus's life and in the church life is giving them a sense of gladness and exuberance and joy. By the way, when a person is filled with the Spirit, one of the first characteristics and signs of that is joy. When a church is filled with the Spirit, its services are characterized by joy.

Yeah, sure, there are times of solemn reflection, there's times of silence, there are times of the church that we ought to devote to repentance and mourning, but the dominant motif of biblical worship is joy. Psalm 100, come into his presence with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Psalm 35, 27, may those who delight in salvation shout for joy. Galatians chapter five, be filled with the Spirit, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. A singing heart is a happy heart. Psalm 16, 11, in your presence God is fullness of joy.

At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. You cannot tell me you are in the presence of God if you are not overflowing with joy. That's why we say our worship services ought to be characterized by exuberance and shouting and joy. You say, well, this is not my personality. Really. Joy is not your personality.

Baloney. If I walked up to you this weekend and I'm like, hey, I have a message to give to you, it's that you won the lottery, $250 million. Ain't no one of you at any of our campuses gonna be like, well, praise the Lord. You're gonna be, you're gonna be filled with joy, aren't you? The reason you're not joyful in worship is because evidently you put more value on $250 million, which can buy you a lot of junk, but can't really do anything for you eternally. You put more joy on that than you do the salvation of God, which is priceless and which endures forever. If you understand how rich a treasure we possess in Jesus Christ our Lord, then what will happen is you will be characterized by joy.

Yes, there are times of mourning, there are times of repentance, there are times of lamentation, but they are overshadowed by joy in God. Psalm 35 27 made those who delight in salvation shout for joy. That's a command, folks.

That's not a suggestion. That's not singling out one type of personality. He filled them with joy. Here's the last one. In both Luke and Acts, the fullness of the Holy Spirit is given in answer to requests.

Last parallel I'll give you. In Luke chapter three, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, it says that the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus like a dove as he stood praying. Luke chapter three, verse 21. Same thing happens at the beginning of Acts. Jesus ascends back up to heaven in Acts 1 10 and tells them to wait for the Spirit.

So you know how they wait? They go, Acts 1 14 into the upper room, and they pray. And they pray for 10 days. And then Acts chapter two, the Spirit of God comes upon them. Then Peter preaches and 3,000 people get saved.

Did you catch that, by the way? They go, they pray for 10 days, Peter preaches. If you read his sermon, it takes about 10 minutes. So they pray for 10 days, Peter preaches for 10 minutes, and 3,000 people get saved. Now we pray for 10 minutes, preach for 10 days, and three people get saved, just because we got the heroes in the wrong place. Same thing happens in Acts four. The early church is in a prayer meeting, and God sent the Spirit so powerfully that the place is shaken. I love, Jesus, in fact, in Luke, and this is what you've got to notice, instructs the church how to pray for the Holy Spirit, because he's like, the Holy Spirit's going to be given an answer to prayer.

Luke chapter 11, I love this verse, one of my favorite verses that Jesus spoke. What father among you, if his son asked for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent, or if he asked for an egg, will give him a scorpion? That's a logical question, right, you parents? I mean, how many of you, your parents, your kid asks you for a chicken nugget? You're like, no, here's a tarantula. Of course not, you love your kid.

You don't, you know, when your kid asks for a chicken nugget, you don't give him a tarantula. And so what Jesus says is, your father, the heavenly father, by the way, he says, you're evil compared to him. You're evil, so God is good, so if you would give your kids something good when they ask for it, do you really feel like the perfect father when you ask for it?

Do you see it? The Holy Spirit, you think he's going to withhold that from you? By the way, we interpret that verse to be about all different kinds of prayer, and that's okay, I think you can apply it to all different kinds of prayer, but you see what he has in mind specifically when he tells you to pray for something? He's talking about the Holy Spirit. You can apply it to getting the raise at work and talking about God's goodness in your life, but you shouldn't overlook what he's really saying here, and that is what he's expecting you to be praying for is the Holy Spirit, because ultimately the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift God could ever give to you. And so what you are doing is you are praying like Jesus prayed, you are praying like the apostles prayed, and God is giving you the manifestation and the outpouring of the Spirit. When is the last time you craved so badly to be filled by the Spirit of God that you pleaded with God for it? All right, so have I made my point?

You're like, what is your point? The whole point is this, Jesus depended on the power of the Spirit. That's how he did miracles, that's how he did prophecy, that's how he preached, that's how he prayed, that's how he resisted sin, that's how he resisted Satan. If Jesus depended on the power of the Spirit, how much more should we? If Jesus depended on the power of the Spirit, how much more should we? Honestly, some in church, I never saw this. I thought Jesus did all that Jesus did out of his own Godness.

And you know what that made me do? That made me be like, I read stuff about him in the Gospel that, well, yeah, you can do that, because you're God. I'm not the son of God, I'm the son of Lynn and Carol.

So you got one up on me. Jesus limited his access to his Godness, and he operated in the power of the Spirit, and Luke shows you that, so that you could see that you have access to the same power that he did. By the way, this is not even just a new thing with Luke. Even the images that Luke uses in Acts for the Holy Spirit are images that go all the way back to the Old Testament. Two main images for the Holy Spirit in Acts, one is fire, one is wind. All right, fire, you know, the Holy Spirit comes on their head like a tongue of fire. Fire was how the Israelite people always saw the presence of God, so that a pillar of fire led them by night, excuse me. When the glory of God came down, it came down as fire. When Moses was called, it was a burning bush, which, you know, burned on the bush but didn't consume the bush. Now they've got a fire in their head that evidently is not consuming their heads, because they all stayed alive, right? So there was an image in the Old Testament. Wind, the wind was how, you remember, God's Spirit opened up the Red Sea so that they could cross over on dry land.

Now that wind, that rushing wind, is coming into their souls. What Luke is trying to show you is this is not something for one style of Christian, one branch of the church. This is something that runs through the whole Bible. The whole Bible has this one major theme, Zechariah 4-6, not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. John 15-5, apart from me, you can do nothing.

When you start reading the Bible, you can do nothing. When you start reading the Bible this way, even how Luke ends Acts, we talked about, we have talked about this. You know how Luke ends the book of Acts?

He does it. He kind of ends it with the periods of ellipsis. You got Paul's in, you know, prison in Rome awaiting execution.

You got the gospel spreading out the whole world. And Luke is like, that's a good place to end it, boom, put a period, close the book. You know, I've told you it ends like one of those Dukes of Hazard episodes I used to watch where Bo or Luke Dukes in the middle, you know, in midair. What's gonna happen to Bo and Luke now?

You gotta come back next week and find out. It just, it doesn't end. That's the way Acts ends. It just ends.

Why? Because the Spirit of God is like this rushing river running through the Bible, this wind that's blowing through the Bible. And Luke just ends it saying, this is how Moses did what he did. It's how David did what he did. It's how Samson did what he did. It's how Elijah did what he did.

It's how Nehemiah did what he did. It's how Malachi did what he did. It's how Jesus did what he did. It's how Peter did what he did. It's how Paul did what he did. It's how Agabus did what he did.

It's how Dorcas did what she did. It's how you are gonna do what you do. And some of you have never experienced this kind of power because you thought Christianity is basically a moral code to be conformed to. It's a set of doctrines to be learned. And it is some of those things, but it is so much more. You can't read the Bible and not see that.

Some of you have. This is not a great analogy, but bear with me. When I read the Bible, I always think of like the story I heard several years ago about these Japanese fishermen who were discovered about 50 miles off the coast of Japan, hanging on to different pieces of the wreckage of a ship. The Japanese Coast Guard picked them up and the Japanese guys were complaining about a cow attacking them from heaven. And so the Japanese authorities said, well, clearly you've got to be lying to us because cows don't attack people from heaven. They thought these guys surely had to be drug runners, or maybe they were doing drugs while they were running drugs, and that's what's making them talk this way.

So they put them in prison. Well, about a week later, a group of American Marines kind of sheepishly came forward after they heard about this incident, said we might be able to explain this. They said, so okay, so we were taking our B-1 bomber, was taken off on one of these little islands over here, and it's a very rural island. It's just got a, you know, an airport or a runway on it. And as we're ambling down the runway, this cow just kind of ambles across the runway, too. And we're like, hey, you know, all we've had to eat are these MREs, meals ready to eat.

And so we're sick of those things. How awesome would it be when we get to our next destination? To have a nice, fresh steak? So they went and they got this cow. They're like, whoever it is won't mind. And they put it in their B-1 bomber, and they put it in the cargo area, specifically the bomb area. And they said at about 32,000 feet, the cow just started to go crazy. They said, well, what's that? Maybe, you know, it's the air pressure, whatever, but the cow like lost its mind. Mad cow.

And he said, we didn't know what to do. So he said, we just opened the bomb doors and dropped that cow. 32,000 feet, this cow dropped through the atmosphere. Now, I tell this story, and I'm like, there's no way this can be true.

But I read it on the internet, y'all, and stuff on the internet's true. And so you just think about these Japanese fishermen, like, you know, fishermen, like, I think that's a cow. I don't think it's not a cow. Then it hits their boat and destroys their boat.

I don't know if it's true or not, but here's what I think when I hear that. I always think, sometimes when I read the Bible, that it's like, I'm like that cow. And here's that poor cow.

He's the one I feel sorry for. Just, you know, eating grass, just minding his own business, and walks into the midst of this runway that has greater power than he has ever known was possible. And he gets taken up the heights that he didn't even know existed. And then he gets dropped.

That part of the analogy doesn't work. But I feel like sometimes I'm reading the Bible, and I'm like, I'm reading the Bible, and you see this, this spirit moving through it. And it just ends in Acts where it's like, dot, dot, dot. And what chapter are you going to write? And how's the Spirit of God going to use you? What's the Spirit of God going to do in your family? What's the Spirit of God going to do in your city, in your campus, in a place where you work? God didn't quit being God at the end of Acts. All the way through there.

Some of you've never tasted it. All right? That's my point, my point for you this week. Jesus, depend on the Spirit. You should. What do you depend on to overcome sin or to parent effectively?

Are you depending on the right power source? What a strong message of encouragement from Pastor J.D. Greer. You're listening to Summit Life and teaching from our series called Rushing Wind. To hear it again or to catch up on previous messages, visit us online at jdgreer.com. While you're there, you can also download sermon transcripts, browse Pastor J.D. 's blog, and subscribe to receive future blog posts in your email. All of these study resources are also available free of charge at jdgreer.com. I think it's safe to say that we're passionate about bringing you gospel-centered Bible teaching on the radio every single day.

But the truth is that it's only possible thanks to supporters like you. When you donate, you're really giving to your fellow listeners, helping them dive deeper into the gospel through these daily messages and free online resources. We're so grateful for your partnership. And to say thanks for your donation at the suggested level of $25 or more, or when you become a monthly gospel partner, we'll send you a brand new devotional by Pastor J.D. titled like our teaching series, Rushing Wind. This resource deals with the often neglected member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and the abundant life that He brings to the lives of believers.

While many Christians focus on the Holy Spirit above everything else, many others treat Him more like a theory than a person. But for both groups, God wants to show us that the Spirit-filled life has more in store for us than we can even imagine. This is a foundational 20-day devotional with reflection questions and a daily prayer guide, perfect for going through yourself or to walk along the journey with others. Ask for your copy of Rushing Wind when you give by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or it might be easier to donate and request the book online at jdgreer.com. That's jdgreer.com. And if you don't receive our e-newsletter yet, be sure to stop by the website to sign up. You'll get ministry updates, sneak peeks of our new resources, and Pastor J.D. 's latest blog post delivered straight to your email. Sign up today at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us again tomorrow.

You know, for a car to work, it has to be drawing from the right power source. And the same is true of us. Tuesday on Summit Life, J.D. Greer points us to the power source for the Christian life with the conclusion of today's teaching.

It's part of our continued study called Rushing Wind. Tuesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.