The Power of Holiness
Ephesians 3:14-21; 2 Corinthians 6:4-7
Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI
March 13, 2005
Fourth Sunday of Lent
Tim Allen, brought to life one the most beloved and most quoted television characters of all time. In fact, he played the man trying desperately to be “a man’s man,” Tim ‘the tool man’ Taylor.
In the situation comedy, Home Improvement Allen brought the bumbling testosterone-addicted ‘Tool Man’ into our living rooms. He taught us to agonize with the plight of man in a society that has decided it no longer wants to be male-dominated. He is the consummate chauvinist – a gear-head out of Detroit with a frat-boy sense of humor and a viking’s sensibility – well, at least what we picture to be a viking’s sensibility. The sports arena, the hardware store, the garage were his stomping grounds – where he was most at home. He even spoke fluent grunt.
And like the typical male, his natural bent was to fix things, whether he knew how to or not. The mental and emotional discomfort that gets stirred up by something that doesn’t work as it should – whether a machine or flesh – is too much for Tim Taylor, as it is for the average male. The urge to fix it, to make all things better, to bring order back to something breaking down into chaos always gets the better of Tim, driving him. And for him the primary means of fixing something is always the same – it needs more power.
We like the word “power,” don’t we? More to the point, we like power. We have power bars, power ties, power walks, power brokers and my personal favorite, power naps. Power is intoxicating, it is stimulating, attractive. Power turns heads and opens doors; it both inspires and calms fears. We want to be empowered, we despise being overpowered and having circumstances out of our power generates hopelessness. If we want something to sell or catch someone’s attention, we attach the word “power” and underscore it.
We want power. Everyone wants power. The pursuit of power is what got Adam in trouble and landed us in a fallen world – a creation groaning under the curse and a heart bent toward sin. And yet, what is it that Paul prays for in our text this morning – he prays that we will have power.
Over the past few weeks we have been talking about holiness. We looked at the big picture of holiness and then talked about what it means practically to pursue holiness. It isn’t just dos and don’ts – rather it is reflecting Christ in every area of life. We then said that it begins with repentance – with taking God’s attitude toward sin and making it our own. Essentially, hating sin as God hates sin. After that we spoke of holiness as a healthy Christian life – striking a balance as we grow in how think about God, how we worship and how we feel about him.
This morning we are going to talk about the power of holiness. We will begin by talking about what the power of holiness is not. Then, we will take a look at Paul’s prayer in Ephesians for insight concerning what is the nature of the power of holiness. Finally, we will talk about how that power is revealed in the life of the child of God.
So when Paul is praying that we will have power, what is he praying for? Our tendency, usually, is to understand power as some capability we can control. Power is something that is possessed, it augments or enhances what is already there naturally.
In Acts 8:9-24, Simon the sorcerer sought the power of holiness, but he didn’t understand what he was asking for. After seeing the manifestation of the Holy Spirit upon those whom the apostles touched and prayed for Simon begged them to sell him the power to do the same. He wanted to be able to share or withhold that blessing with whomever he chose.
What Simon didn’t understand – and a mistake rather common in the church today – is that when you begin talking about the power of holiness, we are not talking about receiving this new ability that allows us to do this or that. We are not talking about some sort of magical or miraculous powers that suddenly start showing up in our lives. We are not talking about becoming a super hero with super powers.
Now, we may giggle and laugh a little and think, “Gee, Chris. We knew that.” Yet, when we talk about power, we still think of it as some sort of endowment of ability that we are able to use at our discretion, like a faucet or light switch we can turn on or off at will. We want to be able to control it, to harness it and use it strategically. We want to be able to bring to bear on specific applications – one’s of our own choosing.
But this is not what Paul prays for when he prays that we may have power. Such power would never suffice for what Paul has ion mind. Any power that would lay within our grasp to control or manipulate to our own ends would fall miserably short of what Paul hopes for those who read this letter.
Early in my Christian walk I heard about speaking in tongues. I was intrigued by the notion, the idea that the power of God touched someone in such a way that he began speaking in a language unknown previously. There was something very inviting and mysterious about the whole thing that captured the imagination. I really wanted it to be true – in the universal sense, I mean. You receive Christ, you start speaking in another language that only God knows what you are saying. Unless, of course, someone happens to be there who speaks the language God gifted you to speak.
I became acquainted with a guy who claimed to be gifted with tongues. Now, I am not going to say that the guy was lying or intending to deceive or any such thing, but as he and I talked about how his gift manifests itself and how it was used in his life, I became suspicious. You see, he literally described this gift as something he could turn on and off at will. God had apparently given him this wonderful ability for his own personal use. He had the power of God harnessed, so to speak, so that he could use it to his own advantage whenever he felt the need. Granted, the gift only benefited him in the arena of faith, still it was a powerful tool in his arsenal if it were true that it worked the way he described it.
To put it in an old folk proverb, you can’t put lightning in a bottle. And if you do, you better not open the bottle ever again because you have no idea what will happen next. The Holy Spirit indwelling us – and it is his power at work in us in holiness – is not a spigot to be turned on at our convenience and then turned off again when we no longer need special power. We can no more control how the Spirit works in our lives than we can control the earth’s rotation around the sun. All we can do is gratefully receive the power of the Spirit and pray for wisdom that we respond to it wisely. Any talk of controlling the manifestation, the use of or the outcome of the power of God should immediately raise the hackles on our necks and send us running the opposite direction.
So if the power of holiness is not some sort of super power for us to use in combating evil in the world as we see fit, what is it? In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays in several places that the members of the church will be given power, but it is not just power to be used willy-nilly. It is not discretionary power that he prays for, rather it is compulsory power – power that overcomes us and that changes us in spite of resistance. Power that will do in us what we will never do for ourselves. Look with me at vv. 14-19 of our text this moring.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
To just set up the text a little, let me remind you of what Paul has been saying to the Ephesians up to this point. He begins the letter by exploring the big picture – that God has redeemed some out the fallen mass of humanity in order reveal the glory of his grace and to bring all things together under Jesus Christ. Then Paul demonstrates how this is being done by salvation by grace alone through faith. This is the only way that any are brought into a redeemed relationship with the Creator – that means both Jew and Gentile. Therefore, God is drawing both together in order to form one new people of God. In fact, Paul says, I was called to be an apostle for this very purpose, to gather the Gentiles into the body of Christ, into the covenant community of God. It is because Paul was specifically tasked to bring in the Gentiles – that is all the other nations and peoples who were not Jewish – that he now kneels before the Father and prays that they will have power. But power to do what?
First and foremost, to believe. He prays that they may latch on to the message of the Gospel, not just initially but continually – probing its depths, its contours, its textures. He prays that they may become so familiar with love of Christ that they can rattle off its dimensions the same way we rattle off the square footage of our houses or the size of our waist. Do you know Christ’s love that well?
But he also prays that we will know the love of Christ even beyond its dimensions. Paul knows that even as we plumb the depths of Christ’s love, we will never get its full measure – it is beyond us. So he prays that we will know even that which exceeds our ability to know. That is quite a prayer, one that is seemingly impossible. But let us not forget who is at work here; the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we think or imagine.
Now, why pray for something that seems like a shoe-in anyway? God loves us, we love God, isn’t the natural progression of things that we will grow to love him more? I mean, wow, he died for us. That is a pretty powerful motivator for us to love him. Yes, it is. But always remember, it was by the power of God – by the work of the Holy Spirit that we came to believe the message of the gospel in the first place. Without God’s gracious intervention in our lives – without him enabling us to believe the message – we still would not believe.
You see, the power of holiness is God’s power at work in us. It is not some spiritual battery pack that we recharge and discharge at our discretion. It is not the we become powerful in the Spirit, rather it is God’s Spirit that is powerful in us. The power of holiness is God himself in action. The same power that flung the stars into space and formed the earth – that called everything into existence is at work in you and me – at work in every believer.
And since it is the power of God at work in us, these two things are true. First, this power is not at our disposal for our purposes. It must fulfill the purposes of God. For those who preach that God’s power is yours to use – to empower you to become wealthy and successful or to make your life pain free do not understand the nature of God’s power and pervert the message of the gospel. The power of holiness must fulfill God’s purposes.
That being the case, the power of holiness is most evidenced in our weaknesses. Now, I am sure that makes you just as uneasy at it makes me. I don’t like to be weak. I want to strong, in control. But when I am determined to control by my strength, I become a like a frosted or shaded window – blocking the light of God’s love and power from reaching the eyes of others. In other words, I hide God’s power behind my own feeble attempts to be powerful.
So how does God’s power get revealed in us? How can we become clear panes of glass for others to see Christ at work in us – see his power? How can we tap into the power of holiness?
The first way is heightened expectations. Let me read vv. 20-21 again. “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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Whatever you can imagine, the most audacious thing you can think of to ask and beyond even that God is able to do.
It has been said that in the Christian church our problem is not the size of our faith but the size of our God. We often think of God as too small – unable to really do what we pray he will do. It is okay to expect really big things from God. Any God who can create our universe, then enter his creation as a creature to die so he can restore the relationship we broke can easily do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
Now, one caveat is to remember the power of God must always accomplish the purposes of God. We must always remember that even Christ prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
The second way that we tap into the power of holiness is through changed lives. Whether you have been walking with Christ a day or a lifetime, you still have rough edges to knock off. If you have become so set in your ways that you cannot – really will not change – then consider yourself, at least in part, a shuttered window. You may not believe it right now, but there are changes God needs to make in your heart. If you don’t believe me, ask him. Start praying for God to change your heart – even where you can’t see it. You will be amazed, and so will all those who witness the change. And when that change comes, the net result is real righteousness – not one we manufacture, but righteousness that God works in us. The light of God’s holiness shines into every corner of our heart, exposing the dust and dirt we have shoved out of sight. The more we row like him, the more we see how unlike him we are and the more discontent we are about it. And at that point we desperately want change.
The third way – and this is a critical one – is through empowered ministry. When we use the gifts God has given us to build up the church an amazing thing happens – the church gets built up! We begin to sharpen one another the way that iron sharpens iron. Those rough edges we talked about are knocked off. And as the church is building up, the power of holiness is revealed in two distinct ways – needs being met and evangelism that reaches the heart. In concert with the heightened expectations, it is okay for us to really want to see people come to Jesus Christ. It is okay to pray, “O God, let me share the message of the gospel with someone and see them turn to you!”
People of God, its okay to want power, so long as it is the power of holiness. Because in the power of holiness, God’s the dimensions of God’s love is revealed and lives are changed. The pursuit of that power is one that we can live with – eternally.
