Discover the Purpose of Power and Authority – Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

power is not just for the Miracles I

believe in that as you know the

destroying of cancer or the addictions

or whatever it might be we believe that

and we pursue that but one of the

primary functions of power in the book

of Acts is the ability to endure it was

this baptism of fire that made it to

where they have no other option they

don’t look at life as having multiple

options they have look at life as I’ve

only got one option it’s to do whatever

he says and it’s the baptism of fire

that reduces the

options

[Applause]

thanks thank

you thanks thank you

thank

wow

coordinates that’s another level of

prophetic right

there she that’s

awesome I was at the McDonald’s

drive-thru this

morning

young lady behind me leaned on her

horn and started mouthing some ugly

things because I was taking too long to

place my

order when I got to the first window I

paid for her order along with my own the

server must have told her what I’d done

cuz as we moved up she leaned out her

window waved at me began mouthing thank

you thank you probably feeling

embarrassed that I had responded to her

rudeness with

kindness when I got to the second window

I showed the server both receipts and I

took her food

too now she has to go back to the end of

the line and start all over

again I know I shouldn’t like that one

but I really do like that I think that’s

so

funny one

more this is a story about a married

woman who decided to go on her own

private vacation to

Europe she went from the Midwest to

London and then she was planning to go

to Paris Rome and Vienna

when she got to London she called her

husband back home in the Midwest and

said how are you doing her husband said’

I’m doing fine but our cat Lucy died so

his wife starts balling her eyes out on

the phone when she regains her composure

she says you insensitive brute of a man

why did I ever marry someone like you

you have no concern for my feelings the

husband said well what was I supposed to

have said the wife thinks for a moment

she says well when I got to London and I

called you just as I did you could have

said Luc our cat is on the roof when I

got to Parish you could have said Luc

our cat fell off the roof when I got to

Rome you could have said Lucy’s not

doing well when I got to Vienna you

could have said Lucy died then the wife

said by the way how’s Mom the husband

said she’s on the

[Applause]

roof

oh probably shouldn’t like that one

either but I do I think that’s so funny

we’re going to receive an offering at

the end as mentioned uh open your Bibles

to Matthew 28 and we’re going to

actually look at some stuff we looked at

last week but I’m going to expand it a

bit more today and um we’ll do Acts

chapter 1 uh actually we’ve got several

passages but we’ll do Matthew 28 Acts

chapter 1

but let me just clear up some stuff on

this I’d rather do this now uh instead

of at the end first year Services I did

it at the end didn’t like it so I’ll try

at the beginning and if I don’t like it

this one then the next service I’ll do

it in the

middle I I have more chances to get this

right so um this is our missions card

it’s for you actually sometimes we do

pledge cards where you you make a

commitment to missions and then you put

it in an offering bag this one is

actually for you to keep record of of

your mission support what we’re looking

for what I really want to see happen is

for every single part uh member of of

bethl to support missions I don’t care

if it’s a dollar a month what I want is

I want it on your radar if I can get it

on your radar where we actually think

Nations it actually affects our

decisions daily it actually starts

moving into shaping priorities shaping

thoughts Ambitions dreams those kinds of

things and um so we’ve got two uh parts

of our mission

fund one is the general fund which was

already mentioned that enables us to put

on new missionaries or to address maybe

emergency needs uh opportunities that

are unusual that just opened and the

team can make decisions to invest around

the world uh but secondly we have U the

individual missionaries that are on the

list I still have I I use this every

month I still have my uh oh goodness

where did I put it I still have the card

that we put out a few years ago um with

the all the list of the missionaries

like are on here but on a single card

and that’s what I use every month if I

say well I want to invest in Tracy Evans

or and Ronin and Heidi Baker or whoever

I and then I can put the missions number

M for missionary and then the number

that that means the money is going to

them none of the money uh ever goes to

administrative costs or anything else

it’s always 100% towards uh towards

missions we uh we we take it onto

ourselves to do all the administrative

costs Etc so that’s uh that’s available

for you um there’s a uh on here you can

pray for a missionary and uh uh unreach

people group put it on there keep it in

your house or you just see it and just

remember uh put a pledge amount that

you’d be willing to give every month and

then U and then on the bottom it says

consider going and I I do encourage you

to to do that when when we were in in

Weaverville um you know it’s a city of

3,500 people the county is 18,000 and uh

you know the real political upheaval

came I discovered early on where the

nerve lied in that City it was when

somebody suggested we have a traffic

light oh my you thought we were being

invaded by the

Communists the second greatest turmoil

was when McDonald’s wanted to do

something put a restaurant there so

small

town I used I used to you know I’m one

of them I used to tease them saying this

is where elephants go to die but then I

would talk to them about our

International responsibility and see if

you think that it’s a it’s a big church

in a big city that has International

responsibility then you’re thinking like

Wall Street not like

Kingdom because in Kingdom one person in

God is a

majority so I I talk to we all the time

about International responsibility we

had our weekly prayer meetings for 17

years and we always prayed for Nations

it took a number of years for people to

catch it but we just didn’t

stop I think the last year I was there

we you know we got like a couple hundred

people in the church and uh last year I

was there we sent I think it was about

150 of them out in

missions so it’s it’s a huge part of

life you know the way I figured I said

not even the devil knows where

weberville is

we we get to Ambush him you know that

that was my philosophy so you know

nobody cared so we just got to

experiment and just go for it so all

right don’t quote me on that please

don’t quote me don’t quote me all right

open your Bibles to Matthew

28 we’ll read a couple scriptures

here verse 17 when they saw him now this

is when he resurrected when they saw him

they worshiped him but some

doubted it’s an average church service

right

there Verse 18 right you guys are going

to make me work hard aren’t you I can

tell yeah Jesus came and he spoke to

them saying all authority has been given

to me in heaven and on Earth go

therefore and Make Disciples of all the

nations baptizing them in the the name

of the father and of the son and of the

Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all

things that I have commanded you and lo

I with you always even to the End of the

Age all authority has been given to me

in heaven and on Earth please please uh

work to make uh to recognize when Heaven

and Earth are mentioned in the same

phrase because there was always intended

to be a likeness a similarity an

influence they are not in opposition not

supposed to be in opposition to each

other one is supposed to influence the

other and that’s the way it’s always

been

designed all authority has been given to

me in heaven and on Earth go

therefore and Make Disciples of all the

nations baptizing them in the name of

the Father the Son the Holy Spirit

teaching them to observe all things I’ve

commanded you I remind you Matthew

chapter 10 Jesus commanded them to heal

the sick raise the Dead cast out Devils

Etc it was never meant to decline it was

never the miracle Ministry was never

meant to take a break it was always

intended to be the heart and soul of the

gospel and it’s the responsibility of

everyone who follows Jesus to learn it

and impart it the way that we U do

things in the kingdom is we we teach we

model and we

impower we teach we model we Empower if

it comes to healing or the prophetic or

discipleship anything that we do you

teach it it’s got to be declared first

number two is you have to model it you

have to give the illustration number

three you have to give people

opportunity to do it so you you teach

you model and you

Empower Acts chapter 1 brings us to the

second passage that I want to uh read uh

uh to kick off this morning’s uh

message Acts chapter

1 starting with verse four being

assembled together with them he

commanded them not to depart for from

Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of

the Father which he said you have heard

from me for John truly baptized with

water but you shall be baptized in the

Holy Spirit not many days from

now therefore when they asked him excuse

me therefore when they had come together

they asked him saying Lord will you at

this time restore the kingdom to Israel

and he said to them it is not for you to

know times or

Seasons which the father has put or

fixed by his own authority but you shall

receive power when the Holy Spirit has

come upon you you shall be witnesses to

me in Jerusalem

in Judea Samaria to the end of the

Earth you shall receive power when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you you shall

be witnesses to me in Jerusalem in all

Judea Samaria to the end of the

Earth the issue of power and authority

these are not um it’s not like uh you’re

buying a car and you have optional

equipment power and authority is the

engine of the car I mean you don’t have

a car without it and the gospel the

essence of the Gospel is literally

carried out Illustrated demonstrated

imparted to people because there’s

Authority because there’s

power what you notice in the Matthew

passage is that Authority was for the

purpose of discipling Nations power is

for the purpose of transforming Nations

and there is a

difference discipleship has a

direction um Chris Valentin just got

back from the the Washington prayer

Presidential Prayer Breakfast and uh one

of the speakers this year I think the

main speaker for the breakfast itself

was the president of Rwanda Rwanda is

going through one of the most

extraordinary

reformations in all of history from when

he inherited this position some years

ago to have a million people slaughtered

innocently slaughtered in this uh

horrible stuff that was going on in the

Tribal wars Etc in just a few months to

go to a place where reconciliation

started they learned how to walk in

forgiveness and they are now building so

what do you do when you’re building a

nation you have to build infrastructure

that helps everyone to win everyone to

be successful it involves education

medicine it involves business it

involves Church life but there’s there’s

the wisdom involved to actually build

structures that make room for the

blessing of God and the work of God in

families and in communities this is the

privilege of building a nation

and that’s what this uh this man in uh

in Rwanda is doing I forgot his name but

uh but he’s having profound effect on

his country and surrounding Nations what

is Authority for Authority is for that

Authority is for the purpose of

discipling

Nations now only a nation can disciple a

nation I can disciple an

individual but it’s our understanding of

being a holy nation positions us

emotionally mentally and spiritually to

be effective in the discipling process

it’s in that posture of understanding we

are actually a nation that is learning

how to discover how God functions as he

directs and empowers Nations to become

something in that context we have the

capacity for discipling

yes 1 Peter 2:9 says you are a royal

priesthood a holy nation

a people for God’s Own

possession there’s not a lot of talk

about it for me or most anybody I know

about us actually having an identity as

a nation but that is who we are and

learning to think of ourselves as a

people that are here as a nation of

servants to bring out the best in all

the surrounding Nations it’s not a

competitive thing it’s not you come

serve us it’s the opposite it’s that we

are empowered with Insight with Grace

with spirit of God to come and Empower

and to train and to teach and to release

Nations into their capacity into their

potential discipleship is about is is

about U uh being conformed yeah becoming

Like

Him Luke says that a a student when he

is fully trained will be like his

teacher so the whole purpose of

discipling is to raise up individuals

and then in this context Nations that

are like

Jesus it’s not about getting people

ready to go to heaven that’s the endgame

obviously but there’s supposed to be a

way of life that is modeled in how I do

family how I do business how I do

politics how I do education how I do

medicine all these areas are supposed to

come under the influence of people who

function in Authority not for personal

gain but for the benefit of the whole

using Divine wisdom to BU build

something yes and Authority is unto that

end Authority is not optional equipment

for us neither is

power Jesus came having been

commissioned from the father 1 John

3:8 the son of man was sent to destroy

the works of the evil one so Jesus came

on assignment to destroy the works of

the evil

one he came commission but he didn’t

come with power now as God he has all

power I get that and he never stopped

being God but he chose to live in in a

in a restricted way as the son of man

dependent on the father to show him what

to do in the spirit of God who rested

upon him to enable him to do what he was

assigned to

do he did so to model to give us an

example that could actually be followed

and so Jesus came with authority why

because he said yes to the mission the

father gave him a mission destroy the

works of the evil and he came in the

mission and came with authority but he

didn’t come with power he needed an

encounter

because Authority comes in the

commission but power comes in the

encounter so Jesus comes commissioned

with

authority but he went to be baptized by

John in that moment the spirit of God

Came Upon him it was after that you

start seeing him walking in

power the point is is that power

transforms discipleship

builds wow that’s good there’s a lot lot

of people that have personal

transformation but they don’t know how

to do

life does that make sense it does it

does to me let Let Me Trace you let me

think through this for a minute

somebody’s transform we’ve seen it we’ve

seen it so countless times where this

encounter with the almighty God there’s

this incredible transformation of their

life all the addictions that they had

all the stuff that they had is broken

off but how many you know when all the

bad stuff is gone you still have to

build

something and discipleship is for the

purpose of Busom uh building wisdom

gives us access to the tools to build

something that is longlasting

power starts a Revival wisdom sustains

it and Authority is what gives us access

to the realm of wisdom that God has made

available for

us in

discipleship all authories has been

given to

me disciple Nations yeah in Authority we

do but in power we

become he said and you will be my

Witnesses good as I heard stated

recently in authority we do right we

function we have specific assignments

Expressions because of the mantle of

authority that we

carry but in power we become in other

words it’s like the hands of a pot the

power of God comes upon a person to

start shaping their lives their values

how they think their Ambitions Etc these

things are shaped in a person by a power

encounter and they are distinct they

overlap in in nature but they are

distinct I I feel like I missed this the

first two Services I thought about

earlier today I just feel like the Lord

is is like he’s giving us an invitation

for a baptism of

fire a fresh fresh baptism

individually family and corporate that

there’s there’s something that’s that’s

in the air it’s been happening for a

while but there’s something in the air

about to equip and train and and Empower

release people into different different

levels of expressions of the

Gospel I I have friends who they’ve been

beaten they’ve been imprisoned they’ve

been shot at they’ve been they’ve had so

many horrible things uh happen to them

in the preaching of the

gospel and every one of them that I know

of will

say they couldn’t have endured without

that specific encounter they had with

the Lord there was an overwhelming power

encounter they point back to that and

they say they never would have been able

to make it see Power is not just for the

Miracles I believe in that as you know

part the the the destroying of cancer or

the addictions or whatever it might be

we believe that and we pursue that but

one of the primary functions of power in

the book of Acts is the ability to

endure it was this baptism of fire that

made it to where they have no other

option they don’t look at life as having

multip options they have look at life

I’ve only got one option it’s to do

whatever he says and it’s the baptism of

fire that reduces the

options as you look through the book of

Acts uh turn to chapter nine of Acts if

you would as you look through the book

of Acts you see

um you this you see this cycle in the

first uh eight

chapters when you when you get to

chapter 10 uh you’re somewhere around 10

years after the day of Pentecost so

we’re not looking at 2 weeks after

Pentecost and when you look at uh you

look at this cycle what you have is you

have an outpouring of the spirit and

then you have added increase of souls

people added to the church and then

persecution then you have outpouring of

the spirit people added to the kingdom

then persecution outpouring of the

spirit people added and

persecution but something happened when

Stephen was being

killed he was he was a man described

full of the Holy Spirit and full of

wisdom I I really he’s one of the guys I

admire most in the Bible because he

wasn’t one of the originals but he rose

up under their influence and came to

such a place of prominence because of

his tenderheartedness he’s like here’s

here’s this this lover of people this

lover of God God so here he’s got

extraordinary wisdom he’s filled with

the spirit of God and he’s being killed

and Saul of Tarsus is on the side and

he’s the the ring leader of this

murderous mob that is going to take out

Christians and he’s been sent both by

religious leaders and government to find

these Christians that are causing such

upheaval in in communities you know

upheaval like getting people free of

drugs and

stuff it’s only upheaval if you’re

selling the drugs

[Music]

so um they sent Saul to as the ring

leader and as they’re killing Stephen he

looks up into heaven and he sees the

heavens

open and then it says that he sees Jesus

the son of God the son of man standing

at the right hand of the father well we

know in Scripture it says that Jesus was

seated at the right hand of the father

but in this moment he is standing to

welcome the first martyr of the church

so Ste Steven is killed but right before

he dies he prays and he says God don’t

lay this to their account in other words

God forgive them he prayed a similar

prayer to what Jesus prayed forgive them

they don’t know what they’re doing

what’s the

point Stephen targeted the people that

were killing him to

[Music]

be places where God would visit in the

future yes individual that God would

bring transformation to fast forward

next chapter two chapters later the Saul

who was looking for more Christians to

kill has an encounter with Jesus on the

Road God in his uh kindness knocks him

off his

donkey the Holy Spirit the gentleman

you’ve heard of

him knocks him off his donkey and he has

this encounter with God he’s blind for

several days and it’s a bizarre story

but he was born

again Saul the biggest enemy of the

church so here’s this enemy who was

prayed for by a man who was dying he was

being literally being killed in the

moment and if ever you’ve heard a

sacrificial prayer a prayer that cost

something instead of working to protect

myself to pray for me for my family my

own personal safety whatever he put all

that aside and he prayed for the who

were killing him and in the next scene

you see God visit one of those he prayed

for and Saul became the major influence

in the New Testament of bringing the

gospel to the nations of the world

missions it came out of that moment

missions was birthed in that moment of

prayer God forgive them they don’t know

what they’re

doing both Authority and power were

focused on

Nations all authority is been given to

me go disciple Nations you’ll be clothed

with power and you’ll take it to the

other most parts of the earth both

Realms were to set us up equip us to

have impact on the course of history

literally influencing

Nations and so here’s this cycle of

outpouring of the spirit addition of

Souls and persecution outpouring of the

spirit addition of souls persecution and

now Saul gets

saved chapter 9:31

one of the coolest verses in the whole

book of Acts verse 31 says the churches

throughout all Judea Galilee Samaria the

places Jesus had propes prophesied about

in Acts 1 ver8 Judea Galilee Samaria had

peace and were edified and walking in

the fear of the Lord and in the comfort

of the Holy Spirit they were

multiplied up until now we have

addition but because power enabled

endurance

because power enabled

endurance you have the exponential

increase because you’ve been faith for

long period and now all of a sudden

there’s multiplication multiplication

was set up because of people who had

encounters with God and they walked in

power and the power they saw the

Miracles they saw the extraordinary

things happen but they also faced

praying I’m sure for Steven to be spared

yes if you and I are in that crowd and

we know him we’re praying God spare him

and it didn’t happen and here’s what

happens when you have your worst moment

if you handle it well it becomes the

back door to your greatest

promotion and so here we’ve got stepen

being martyred the worst moment in the

next scene the guy who the ring leader

gets saved and all of a sudden we got

church moving into mul

multiplication it’s about it’s the

Harvest of souls yes

one of the most important things to

learn in this in this uh role of of

being a follower of

Jesus is that when I value what he

values he starts valuing what I

value what do you think it means when it

says seek first the kingdom and all

these things will be

added it means just that you take on

what he values and you allow his values

to shape you when that takes place then

he’s ready to listen to your values you

say well why doesn’t he do that first

because then he’s building a

self-centered person instead of a

kingdom oriented person that can be

trusted with blessing see when blessing

is the reward and not the pursuit it it

it uh solidifies the Devotion to

Christ I didn’t say that as good as I

could

have when the blessing of the Lord is is

added to a life in a reward it

reinforces the Devotion to Christ but

when the blessing of the Lord becomes

the

pursuit then it creates a division of

the

heart

one of the things that has excited me

the most in the last I I would say 10 10

years has been the discovery this may

seem a little silly to you but has been

the discovery of the word proverb in

what it

means

it it put together this many many many

years a quest for divine

wisdom it brought a missing piece to me

that I never had I never knew Brian

Simmons of the passion translation was

sharing this concept with me that the

word proverb actually comes from a word

that means to Reign or to

rule and that the essence of wisdom is

to enable a person to rule over life to

reign it’s not reigning over people it’s

reigning over life it’s that money

doesn’t control me I control

money you can tell if you’re controlled

by money because money is what uh forces

you to make

decisions I can’t afford this I can’t

afford this everything’s based on money

instead of you directing it to where you

want it to

go so with wisdom then was always

designed to equip us to reign in life so

I’m I’m just I’m fascinated by this

invitation of the Lord to disciple

Nations he he didn’t say your

neighbor which would have been good

enough he said

Nations because that’s how he

thinks that’s how he thinks that we make

decisions today that affects the course

of history for Nations

it’s going to be interesting for all of

us exciting fun and terrifying all at

the same time when we stand before the

Lord and we see the effect of every

dollar that was given every word of

kindness that we gave every moment you

stop to visit a friend when it was

inconvenient and and we’ll see the

ripple effect into eternity of all these

various things there won’t be any part

of your life that you won’t be able to

see the effect of hard decisions easy

decisions and the impact it had on

eternity and I can tell you I can I can

only I can only imagine that nothing

else is going to matter to me in that

moment than than that it’s going to be

what did I do with what I was

given and it’s not a guilt thing into

giving it’s a it’s a living from

eternity like right now now it’s just

living thinking of Eternal

impact and if Nations has never been uh

a part of uh your thinking then learn

you know just pick one you know pick

Japan and then whenever you see it in

the news you know just read the article

or something do something to where it

stands out to you pick some place on the

earth pick one of these 12 tribes that

you can just pray for maybe it’s just

once a week but you what you do is you

you just don’t lose track with not only

an invitation of the Lord for you

personally but your identity in a family

that’s been given an

assignment those coordinates is that the

most extraordinary thing ever a three to

five-year-old girl gets numbers and it

takes you right to I want to go find

that

Shepherd where where is he hiding my

goodness that’s just bizarre that’s

right but that’s that’s the Lord that to

me that reaffirmed this entire two weeks

right there for us as a family

it was his amen here let me show you

I’ll speak through a

child

wow thank you

Lord I think I’m done

pretty sure Chris why don’t you come up

and do what only you can

do you

already yeah you know your

[Applause]

part