Kingdom Power
About this series:
The kingdom of God is not a static subject, but a dynamic reality. The presence of God and his reign with his people makes an experiential difference and while that should be clear throughout the whole series, this section should especially emphasise that. Martyn Lloyd Jones’ comment about this is helpful: ‘The Christian life after all is a life, it is a power...That is the thing we so constantly tend to forget. It is not just a philosophy, it is not just a point of view, it is not just a teaching that we take up and try to put into practice. It is all that, but something infinitely more.
The topics we’ll cover are (though not necessarily in this order -please see further below):
Power (introduction - the Christian life is a life of power!)
Healing: theology
Healing: practice
Gifts: prophecy
Gifts: speaking in tongues
Salvation
Freedom
Suffering
The reason for including a week on suffering is that, as God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). We all know that one of the greatest evidences of God's kingship as displayed in the life of his people is his power that sustains us when we suffer - it's definitely a mark of his reign.
About this talk:
Martyn Lloyd Jones expressed it so well: ‘The Christian life after all is a life, it is a power’.
God’s power, demonstrated in so many ways, has always been expressed in his activity among his people. But a vital aspect of the promise of the new covenant was that God’s powerful presence would be known and felt not only among his people at particular times, but by each of his people at all times because his Spirit would dwell in each one of them. So:
Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
Jeremiah 31:33-34: “‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the Lord. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’”
Joel 2:28-29: “And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
Isaiah 44:3: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”
In the ministry of Jesus it’s clear that God’s powerful activity is specially on display; God’s reign is being expressed on earth in and through his Son. His kingdom is a kingdom of power; a power that we experience in multiple ways as the Holy Spirit is active among us: in leading us to faith in Jesus, in the ongoing process of sanctification and growth in the fruit of the Spirit, in gifts being distributed to each person, in signs and wonders, in enabling us to persevere when experiencing trouble, and so on.
So we could say that the gospels record the kingdom of God coming near in Jesus and then the Book of Acts gives an account of kingdom power being manifested and experienced in his body in the first few decades of the early church. So, for example:
Acts 2: the Holy Spirit falls powerfully on each of the believers and 3,0000 people are transformed by that same power. In the description of church life we read, “many wonders and signs [were] performed by the apostles,” while people were becoming followers of Jesus daily.
Acts 3: Peter and John heal a man who was lame from birth.
Acts 4: Peter powerful proclaims about Jesus and at the subsequent prayer meeting, “the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” The description of church life then makes it clear that God’s power was at work: “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy person among them.”
Acts 5: Ananias & Sapphira encounter God’s power in judgement; “the apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people...more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number...Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing those who were ill and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.” The apostles were jailed, but miraculously freed and though they were flogged, “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”
These people have not only come to believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour; they are experiencing his reign as exalted king among them. The rest of the New Testament helps us then see the practical outworkings of life when God is king.
Audio only
