Not Our Might or Power but by God’s Spirit

Not Our Might or Power but by God’s Spirit

Ephesians 3:7

“Shall I, for fear of feeble man,

The Spirit’s course in me restrain?

Or, undismayed, in deed and word

Be a true witness for my Lord?”

And it speaks the same as the verse that we’re studying really today. So maybe you’d look at it, loved ones. It is Ephesians 3:7 and it concerns, of course, Paul’s own ministry and witness very clearly. And it seems to me there are some words for us here in this verse. “Of this gospel I was made a minister.” “Egenaethaen” is "I was made" or "I became." And minister: “diakonos”; “diakonos” is minister. “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace.” “Kata” is "according to," and “dorean” is "gift," and "of God:" “theou,” and "grace" is “charitos”. So, “Of God’s grace which was given me;” “dotheisaes” is "what is given." “Was given me by the working,” “energeian,” “energeian” which obviously becomes our "energy," and it is the "effectual working," "the working," the "strong working." "Of his power:” And everybody knows of the name of the magazine in Minneapolis, Dunamis. “Dunameos” is "of power." “Dunamis,” which became [our English word] dynamite. We called our first magazine, “Dunamis”, you remember.

So, “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of his power.” And obviously he is referring initially to his calling first of all. That’s the first meaning of the verse, “I was made a minister when I met Jesus on the Damascus Road." And that’s what we read about in the New Testament lesson. And obviously there was a great working of God’s power there because he was struck blind, and then he received his sight back again when he met Ananias. So he’s speaking first of all of that, “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of his power.” And then secondly, he’s speaking of the fact that the grace of God’s power is what makes him a minister of the gospel.

It’s the working of God’s power that makes it. And that comes out you remember, when he spoke to some of the people that he wrote to, and said, “I did not come to you with words of men’s wisdom. In fact, I came kind of shaking and trembling.” And he emphasizes that it’s not by the brilliance of his explanation, even though we may think Paul was quite a genius, yet he says, “It’s not by my explanations of truth that you have received this gospel or that I have been a minister of it.”

And that’s what came home to me strongly, because it’s very easy, it seems to me, with our emphasis on doing the very best we can, both in speaking to each other, and in speaking on radio, and in the work that we do on the websites, it’s very easy for us to allow our emphasis to depend wholly on that, or for our concentration to be completely upon that, and to think, “Yes if we do this right, if we do this website well enough, people are going to be drawn to Jesus.” And it seemed to me very -- really comforting, and strengthening, and encouraging, and probably humbling to realize that Paul had this ministry of the gospel because of the effectual working of God’s own power.

Now where that comes out is in particularly, the response of people to the gospel. And there is one response there in Acts 2:37. This is after Peter spoke, you remember, on the day of Pentecost, explained the whole thing from Verse 22, you remember, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders,” and right on through, you remember. And then he says verse 29, “’Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried.’” And he ties it into the Old Testament; preaches the whole sermon; and then in verse 37, “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ’Brethren, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” And verse 41, “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

That was one response of the people to God’s mighty power working upon them. And I think there’s a strong tendency for us to think, “Well, Peter preached it clearly. He made it absolutely clear to them, and so they understood it, and they were convinced, and they did what is right in the light of truth. They responded appropriately. And that’s why it happened.” But of course what Paul is saying to us is, “It was by the working of God’s mighty power in them that they came to that place.” And it seems to me, sometimes we can actually get discouraged, because we do not see them being cut to the heart, and we do not see three thousand coming and repenting. And we think, “Well, it’s because we’re not doing it right, and we must work harder at it, and do it better.” And what Paul is saying is, “This ministry of the gospel depends wholly on God’s grace given to us through the mighty working of his Spirit in people’s hearts.” And he almost says, “It’s independent of what you say. It’s independent of what you do.” And that’s why it seems to me the Bible says very clearly, “You are unprofitable servants.” At the end of it all we are unprofitable servants. We actually don’t achieve anything. We simply do what God gives us to do, and his mighty power works the change.

Now another proof of that is another man, you may remember, preached virtually the same sermon: Acts 7:54. And of course you know who it was. And really Stephen did virtually [the whole] chapter. Acts 7:1, “And the high priest said, ‘Is this so?’ And Stephen said: ‘Brethren and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran...’” And he goes right through the whole thing again. He explains it all in detail. He comes right to the heart of it when he comes to Jesus. And he says, "This Jesus....” In verse 51, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it...” He comes right to what has now happened in Jesus, and now, verse 54, were they cut to the heart? “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth against him.” And of course, you can see he got a lot of 'hits on his website:' Verse 58, “Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.”

So it seems that that is also the working of God’s Spirit in power in the people’s hearts. And that indeed "God’s word does not return unto him void, but it does achieve the purpose for which it was sent." And it’s possible for us of course, in that particular situation to remember that there was another man standing by looking after the clothes of those who stoned Stephen. And of course that turned out to be Paul. And it’s easy for us to say, “Oh, well now that was one good result that came.” Yes, but that wasn’t obvious to see even in... Stephen went to heaven without any assurance of it at all.

It seems to me if we are realistic, we need to see clearly that we are engaged in a ministry of the gospel. The gospel is what God has planned for all of us in Jesus. And our job is to explain that as clearly as we can, faithfully, and to live in the light of it. And then it is absolutely up to God’s Spirit; absolutely dependent on his power. And it is vital for us actually, to keep our eyes off this issue of results, because you will just as often get the result that Stephen got, as you’ll get the result that Peter got. And yet they’re both the result of God’s working of his Holy Spirit in people’s hearts.

What I think is vital about this, is that it governs the way we will all work on our websites, and the way we’ll work on our newsletter articles, and the radio, and all the other things we do. Our job is to do those as well as we possibly can for God’s glory and to do them out of joy, and out of love for him. But then, everything else is in God’s hands, and it seems to me then we look up to the Father and we thank him for what he is doing in people’s hearts. And therefore we exercise faith in the only power that is really at work.

I think there’s a great danger of us here laying emphasis not on the real power that does the work, but on us ourselves, and on our abilities, and on how we’re doing things. And of course, you can see that if we’re putting faith in that, we’re actually not believing God, and we’re not putting faith in him. And so it seems vital to put our faith strongly in the only power that makes a difference in people’s lives.

Now it also helps us when we come to issues like this being “cut to the heart,” because it’s very easy for us to say, “Oh they were cut to the heart.” Either that’s an exaggeration by the scripture writer, or things were certainly different then, or they were certainly mighty preachers and mighty witnesses compared with us little pygmies. Well of course they were cut to the heart because the Holy Spirit worked deeply in them.

And so it is with us, God still does his work that way. We are ministers of the gospel “according to the gift of God’s grace to us through the working of his Holy Spirit.” And that’s the only way we are ministers of his. And that’s the only way that work is done in people’s lives and people’s hearts. And that’s also, of course, a message to us even about the things that all of us, and certainly I, talked about at supper last night. When we begin to look at the bad things that are happening in our world, it really has always been like that.

It’s part of the testimony that God has established that, in fact, we are living apart from him, that there will be continually bad things happening in this ‘fallen world’. And yet, the change is possible, because it is wrought by God’s Holy Spirit. It is not wrought by Stephen speaking the right words in the right way, or by Peter preaching in an effective way. It is done by God’s own Holy Spirit. And he is the one that changes people’s lives.

It helps us of course, when we realize that the people that we notice are the people’s whose lives have been greatly changed and have been transformed -- and the fact is, that that can only happen by the work of God’s Spirit. It’s very difficult. I mean, I know as a school teacher you can get incremental changes in a person’s behavior, but they’re very little. They are just a little adjustment, a little modification. That’s about what we produce in each other. But changes that radically affect our behavior and our attitude are wrought by the Holy Spirit within us.

And so it might be good to just read some of the – I’ve looked at some of the other places where Paul has talked about his ministry. And there’s Romans 15:16, and they all run along the same lines. He says -- verse15 gives you the grammatical context, “But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ, thus making it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on another man’s foundation, but as it is written, ‘They shall see who have never been told of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him.’”

And I was saying to both Martha and Joe that it was important for us to play down the professional Christians that write letters to us, wanting to debate endlessly points of theology, or ways of evangelism, or apologetics. It’s vital for us to play that down and to attend to those outside Christianity who really are serious about knowing the meaning of life, because those are the people to whom we are called. “They shall see who have never been told of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him.” And I think I said to both Martha and Joe, that if you don’t do that, if you allow yourself to be distracted by the professional Christians that want to debate you continually, or want-- Martha was saying, “Should we have our doctrine, stated there [on websites] plainly? Because so many of them say, ‘What do you believe about the Bible and the virgin birth?’” And I think the answer is, “No!” We don’t want to encourage that kind of bickering over doctrine. And we want to keep our eyes focused on the dear hearts that do not know Jesus, that don’t go to church, that don’t like religious people, and the people that we’re called to. And of course that’s what Paul was saying, that he’s called to those people, too. And that is our calling.

Of necessity therefore, we will maybe get a lot Stephen’s hits, and not so many of Peter’s great churches. But that’s in God’s hands. God can determine when that comes. It seems to me that the only way you can ever find out, is by going right to the Father. And when we get to heaven we will see what God himself has wrought. And I think we’ll be amazed at what has happened. But I think that’s the Father’s work and it’s in his hands.

Paul speaks again in 2 Corinthians 4. And they’re useful because they just explain again the heart of what being a minister of Jesus Christ or a witness for him is. I think it’s right at the beginning of the chapter, “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, is it veiled only to those who are perishing.” And you see this is where he emphasizes very strongly, this is something that God does. This is something that is in the realm of the spiritual powers. It is not connected with our language or our words. We should make our websites attractive as we can, but for the glory of God. Not to get people in, but for the glory of God.

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.” And that’s why he points out, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.”

And it seems to me that’s Gods way all the time. And so it will be with us. It will be in our lives. God will continually be working to bring us into the fullness of Jesus. And as he does that, and when we’re at our worst, and we think we are most lacking in winsomeness, and we are doing the least work, at that moment God will be doing his own work in people’s hearts and lives.

And so it is a very different kind of ministry. And it’s good to read these things because it corrects the unbalanced view we get of mega churches, and of success in today’s world which bear probably no relationship to what is actually happening in the kingdom of God at all.

And there’s just one more reference I think that I have and -- maybe I’ve given you them all? No, I think that’s it, loved ones.

Well let’s make the websites as good as we can, but let’s be very clear who is doing the work.

Let us pray.

Dear Father, we do thank you that you have given us brains and hands, and then given into these hands these computers. So we thank you Lord, that you have graciously put us in a world of sense and of physical existence, where we can enjoy using these hands, and using the computers, and expressing the joy of your life, and your energy through these things. But we thank you Lord, that that’s their purpose. That neither our hands nor the computers can change people’s hearts. You alone can do that. And you, in the great wisdom of your kingdom, determine whose hearts are to be changed and whose wills submit to you. And Lord, we thank you that you have proven yourself a fair and a just God and Father down through the years. And so we know that you do all things well, and that your administration of your own kingdom is in accord with your nature of love and mercy.

So we thank you Lord, that we can commit into your hands the working of your kingdom and the working out of your gospel in people’s hearts. And therefore we commit into your hands our Father, the thousands of men and women who during these coming years will read the facts about your work and your witness. And we know Lord, that you will work in their hearts accordingly, and that “your word will not return onto you void,” but “it will achieve the purpose for which it was sent.” And Lord, we know that at some time that will be joyful acceptance, and at another time it will be the kind of raging rebellion and rejection that Stephen faced. Lord, we leave all that in your dear hands. And we thank you for calling us to joyful ministry of your gospel. And we thank you Lord, that the results are in your hands, and are due to your work and your power.

We thank you Father, that we can go forth in confidence that you are giving to us continually the gift of your grace through the effectual working of your Holy Spirit, in the lives of those that we meet.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each of us now and evermore, amen.