Spiritual Power 1/25/42
Scripture: Acts 1: 1-8
Text: Acts 1: 8 “Ye shall receive power when that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.”
Our time is one in which people have depended upon things. Happiness has been sought in terms of the possessions which, it was assumed, might bring happiness. This is nothing new. Mankind has tended to depend on things for happiness before. Unless he is a regenerate creature, he will do so again and again. It is a temptation which rises out of physical necessity for some of the goods necessary to life.
Our time is also one in which many people are learning the old and oft-repeated lesson that happiness does not lie with things. The one with greatest possessions may be the farthest from happiness. For “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (sermon not long ago)
There is a renewed emphasis in our day upon the spirit. Hosts of people have turned in this direction in order to find meaning for life. (Strength for strength’s sake - Hitler youth;
Strength for righteousness sake - Christian youth)
Thousands upon thousands of people, most of them young people, have turned in spirit of devotion to their country or state in order to find meaning for their lives. Their loyalty is inspiring and yet, in many cases, pitiful. For their loyalty depends on a spirit of blood and iron, upon pressure and sheer force. And that means, in the long run, cruelty, disregard of the human personality, casting aside of love as God’s way of life, blindness to the viewpoints of others, which will destroy the good they seek.
In a very real sense, the Nazi and Fascist movements are spiritual movements. So is Bolshevism. They inspire great enthusiasm and a willingness toward sacrifice on the part of hosts of their followers. The appalling thing about it all is that there is so much of evil in the spirit.
Our free and democratic ways of living in our part of the world have been threatened by the growth of these other spiritual movements and must be defended against them. To continue, through generation after generation, democracy must demonstrate that it can be just as successful, and more desirable, than the regimentation which may be efficient but crushes out individual worth. If freedom is right, and it surely is, it is worth a tremendous price in loyal struggle. It must be strong.
Our way of life is built upon the kind of freedom which carries with it a citizen’s responsibility. Our freedom is false if it is an irresponsible liberty to do as we please. Democracy will live only upon the foundation of responsible, intelligent, spiritually-motivated individual people who take their citizenship seriously. Our freedom of worship carries with it the responsibility to worship; to belong to a church, to worship, and to follow its Christ.
Can free people be trusted with their liberty? I think that good citizens of a democracy must be moved by a great spiritual power. And there is no greater spiritual power than that sent by the God of Abraham and of Isaac; of David and of that One who appeared in his line, Jesus of Nazareth; the same God of our Fathers; of Lincoln and of Livingstone.
The one great hope that this world has today of a spiritual order higher and better than that of national state socialism lies in the hope for a greater number of people who are moved by the power of a Holy Spirit!
There is ground for hope. There is a deep and real stirring in the lives of many Christian people. Many Christian churches give evidence of a moving life in their membership. One pastor said to me within this month, “I have never been so hopeful about my church in any year as I am at the beginning of this season.” He had felt a real earnestness that was encouraging to him is his planning and ministry. I am sure some of us have felt the same sort of spiritual moving ourselves as we gather for worship is these days.
As Christian people, our first concern in our desire to be useful in the fellowship of free people of our land and our world, is to be the right kind of people. This depends not on a program of citizenship or a system of ethics, nor even upon the golden rule. It depends first of all upon our standards and the source of our power.
It took Paul a long time to find that out. Paul was thoroughly trained in the religious observances of his day. He was educated. He was a craftsman, a competent tent-maker. He had a fine sense of right and wrong. He was a strong personality. He was zealous in the performance of what he thought to be his duty. But he did not begin to approach his greatest service until the power of God laid hold of him and he became a new man.
Those apostles of Jesus were a group of men chosen for superior qualities and possibilities. But they were common people with common failings. (Fishermen and tax collectors found it hard even to stand loyal to Jesus in danger, and fled and denied him in the hour of crisis.)
The time came when a new and great power came upon them. It was not alone of their doing. They had to wait for it, to be prepared for it. When it came it was God’s gift.
O how much we Christians, in a time of crisis such as this in our day, know that we need the power of a Holy Spirit. The spirits of the world are not enough. Their harm and evil cancel out their good. Hope lies alone in that which is higher, holier than human.
(There is no need to be cynical about our lack of power not to be impatient about it, so long as we truly try, as followers of Christ, to be prepared for it.) Any life that is dedicated to God in Christ and trying, day by day, to live in his way may receive in some measure, small or great, the power of a holy spirit.
It is a promise contained in the book of Acts only eight verses from the beginning of the book. Readers of that account are assured in these words: “Ye shall receive power when that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.”
(At the last meeting of the Oahu Evangelical Association, Rev. Mr. Schenck told the delegates that this verse gives the key to the whole book of Acts. The Acts, the doings, the great, good accomplishments of the Apostles in spreading the gospel of Christ, had their motive and source in the Holy Spirit. The promise is to us, as well as to them. Those who heard from young people who attended the World Conference of Youth at Amsterdam just before the outbreak of war in 1939 know that they caught some of the fire of the Spirit. (We can only pray that more of it may be given to all of us according to the promise.
Relying on the promise, what is the purpose of the spirit? Is the Holy Spirit something that is to be coveted as a means of personal happiness? Nothing can bring happiness so long as it remains a selfish personal possession. The spirit can not be had on those terms.
After the promise in the book of Acts come these words: “Ye shall be witnesses unto me.” The purpose of this Spirit is in sharing. If it is good for you, it is good for me. If it is good for me, it is good for my brother; my neighbor. You and I must witness by word and way of life and acts the presence of the Holy Spirit. (That is a practical definition of a missionary.)
Power from the main line goes through our houses and our machines only after they have been made ready with a connecting line. We must make ready our line to the resources of God and then trust him to fill us with the great spiritual vitality that is there waiting only for our willingness and his gift.
Perhaps we shall be deserving of the freedom we have if we, like those who struggled for it at the beginning of our nation, know what it is to put our personal relationship to God and His Spirit first in our lives.
Christians, young and old, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all other needful things will be added unto you.
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dates and places delivered:
Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, October 29, 1939 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, January 25, 1942