Throughout all Generations

Acts 19:1-7

 

 

One Sunday, when I was about 10 years old, I didn’t want to go to church. My Dad chased me around the house and out into the backyard where he finally caught me. When we got to church I wouldn’t get out of the car so he made me wait there while they went to services.

 

As bad as this story sounds, for the most part I enjoyed, or at least complied, and went to church each Sunday. Although our church tradition didn’t talk about asking Jesus into your heart or being born again, looking back on it now, I believe that I was a Christian trying to follow and obey God.

 

However, years later in college a friend presented the Four Spiritual Laws to me. It made a lot of sense so I asked Christ into my heart. That same summer my friend told me about the Holy Spirit and how he worked in my life. Like the disciples in Ephesus that Paul met, I had an initial belief that later lead to a life changing experience.

 

These disciples had most likely become believers through the ministry of Apollos who had been in Ephesus previous to Paul. They are referred to as disciples, so they must have believed in God, but something was missing, and that something was the Holy Spirit. When Paul placed his hands on them while baptizing them, the Holy Spirit came upon them in power.

 

Years later, while in prison in Rome, Paul wrote these words to the disciples in Ephesus. Notice how many times he mentions the word “power”.

 

^16 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

 

Looking back at a ten year old boy who didn’t want to go to church, God was at work in my life. He was constantly drawing me to him, even as my father dragged me, kicking and screaming, to church that day. Years later, God opened my heart to His Holy Spirit and changed my life.

 

Paul’s Ephesian prayer ends like this:

^20”Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

 

“Throughout all generations, for ever and ever”… Paul’s prayer was not only for those

disciples in Ephesus, but for you and me today. God is still at work in our lives through the power of His Holy Spirit, to draw us closer to Him and to use us to attract and bring others to Him also.

 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2019%3A1-7&version=NIV;TLB
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Acts.19.1-Acts.19.7

 

The Holy Spirit Gives Us Power

Being able to drive is a big deal.

 

Most teenagers can hardly wait to drive. It means “freedom” and not having to depend on parents for transportation. You have the wherewithal to get to where you want to go.

 

Some of the best stories in my family folklore involve teenage driving. Driving is a big deal! In fact, it might be a rite of passage in our society.

 

We don’t let just anyone drive. Driving is a huge responsibility. One must be credentialed with a license first. Only then does one have the basic skills necessary for driving.

 

Today’s reading is Acts 1:1-8.

 

The resurrected Jesus is giving his apostles instructions before he goes back to heaven. The apostles still don’t understand what is happening. They think Jesus will return to set up an earthly kingdom, a kingdom that restores the military might and lavish grandeur Israel had a thousand years earlier under King David.

 

Rather, the apostles will be charter members of The Kingdom of Heaven, which is more lavish and more powerful than King David could ever imagine.  Membership has responsibilities and that requires certain power, powers the apostles did not yet have.

 

Jesus tells the apostles to do nothing until they receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave the apostles (and us, too!) the power to carry out their responsibilities.

 

Like the apostles, we are to carry out the mission of the church. We are to spread the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth, teaching new believers what it means to be Christian. Of course, we are to love all people, and that means to care for them.

 

It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to do these things.

 

Driving is a privilege with responsibilities. Our training gave us what we needed to drive.

 

Being a member of Christ’s Body is also a privilege with responsibilities.  The Holy Spirit gives us what we need to carry out our mission.

 

So ….

 

Go out into the world and drive home the fact that Jesus is King!