The Power to Overcome
This is My Vow - Part 1
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Acts 1:2-5, Matthew 12:43-46
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 1:4-5
“Isn’t this what John declared in the wilderness?” some of them must have thought as the heard Jesus’ final words. John baptized with water for the cleansing of sins, but one would follow who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, separating the wheat from the chaff. He would burn up and entirely consume all that is impure and unholy in the world… or perhaps not only in the world… but within us.
The promise was coming true. Jesus was about to ascend into heaven and Holy Fire would fall. Even his death could not stop the Kingdom from coming. If the power of God is great enough to conquer death and the grave, how could it not also overcome the power of temptation and sin in our lives?
If the Holy Spirit truly came into the world, as Jesus promised, surely no form of evil or wickedness could stand in His Holy presence… and more than that… Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his apostles… to his disciples... to all who believe in him and confess Him as Lord… and so if we are born of the Spirit of God and have his power within us, how then can evil stand in OUR presence, let alone within our own lives?
Salvation has surely come!
So where is this Holy Spirit today?
God’s Holy Fire continues to fall upon the earth in every place and in every age since that day. So how is it that with such a Holy and Purifying power set ablaze in world through the people of God… through the church… that we still experience the overwhelming realities of sin and evil not only in the world beyond our walls, but even within our own lives?
Is the presence of the Holy Spirit still recognizable in our churches today? It’s easy to develop a like-minded club or group of people who like each other and want to live good lives and keep themselves separated from the world around them. It’s easy to have worship services and read the bible together in Sunday School and share fellowship meals. It’s even easy to do a few community service projects…
We are very good at “playing church”.
But without the fire of the Holy Spirit and the power He gives us to live out the discipline and commitment of our Baptismal Covenant, our Confirmation, and our Membership, we are not The Church.
If we have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and by fire, God has consumed all evil and wickedness within us.
If we allow the His fire to burn within us, no evil can return and we will experience freedom from sin, guilt, and shame.
Will we vow again to live the Holy Life to which we were called, out of darkness into the marvelous light of Jesus, the Christ?
Listen to this week’s sermon here: