Empowered by the Spirit: Embracing Our Identity in Christ

On Palm Sunday, we know or some of us know it speaks of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem where suddenly the multitudes of people begin to throng him. They pull branches from the trees, waving them and strewing them in his path. The praises ascend as the crowd swells. It's momentous, it's magnificent, it's awesome, it's powerful, it's beautiful. He's worthy of it. That's Palm Sunday. The praises were raised, but then if you follow the story, many hearts failed. Many hearts went through crisis after that, right? The crucifixion of Jesus. Things did not go as planned or as they thought they should go, and many lost heart. [00:00:43]

For several weeks, we've been talking here about our identity in Christ, our union with him, what he has miraculously done by the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to join us to himself and transform us in our status and our position and our relationship with him. We have a new identity in Christ, and out of that identity, we are given authority. We've been talking a lot about our position, our posture, or our position in Christ, but today I want to move into more speaking more about the power that comes from that. [00:02:14]

This is the week that we commemorate and we celebrate everything Jesus came to do. It's not by chance that this all happens in the Passover season because Jesus is our Pascal lamb. He's our Passover sacrifice. He's the one who bore our sins. Everything Jesus came to do comes to a climax in this special week that we celebrate where he comes and he finishes his work here on the earth, and he takes on our sufferings on that cross, but he goes to the grave, and the grave cannot hold him. He rises again. [00:03:40]

The major reason most people don't experience the power of the Holy Spirit is that they don't think they can. They're either hung up with their difficulties around them or they're hung up with their difficulties within them. There are obstacles in ourselves, you know, our own knowledge of our own sinfulness and our unworthiness. It could become so self-absorbing, it could become so surmounting in our lives, it could mount up so strong in our hearts that it creates a blockade. Jesus came to change your status, your position, so that he could change your condition. [00:05:28]

When you get these two thoughts together and that God is willing, God is willing, and you are qualified through Christ, God is willing, and you are qualified through Christ, that'll posture you, that'll set you up for his activity and his action and his coming and his strength in your life. I remind you that in Acts chapter 2, when it's all complete, it's all done, Jesus has risen from the dead, he's walked the earth for 40 days, he appears to people, so on and so forth, he showed himself alive, and then he ascends to heaven. [00:07:04]

The two notable things about the New Testament promise of the Holy Spirit is this: how extensive it is. They were all filled, sons and daughters, maid servants and men's servants, slaves, no matter what condition in society, no matter who they were, they were all filled. How extensive it was. In the Old Covenant, it was on a select few. It was here and there sporadically. In the New Testament, it is extensive. Not only is it extensive, it's intensive. He pours out his spirit, not a drizzle, not a little bit here or a little bit there. [00:12:41]

The story of Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4 teaches us the Holy Spirit is God's answer to our inadequacy and our insufficiency. Everything that we are not, he becomes for us and to us and in us. He is so wonderful. You know, his story starts, and let me give you this background real quick and then read these scriptures to you and move this right along. In 538 BC, after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, 70 years of captivity where they thought they'd never get out, nothing was ever going to change, they were just kind of stuck there. [00:27:47]

After building the altar, laying the foundation, 16 years go by. 16 years of lackluster living, 16 years of nothing great happening, 16 years of no real changes, 16 years of struggle, 16 years where their strength within them was dissipating, and they were trying their best, living on their reserves, and they weren't making it, and they were getting heavily discouraged and disheartened, as some of us do. And with that, that 16 to 18 years where it seemed like forever, and they went from wow wee to oh me, and then all of that began to happen in their hearts. [00:31:46]

When circumstances come our way, they either crush us or they posture us. They either crush us or they posture us in position. If you identify your adversity with God's displeasure, it'll work against you and be a great hindrance. If you think somehow, well, God must be punishing me, I'm getting what I deserve, even all this unfairness, it's because of something in me. If you identify your adversity with God's displeasure, it'll work against you and be a great hindrance. But there's not a New Testament gospel story where Jesus ever identified somebody's adversity with God's displeasure. [00:36:29]

The posture of praise changes so much. It sets us up. See, on Palm Sunday, they praised superficially. They praised circumstantially. He praised because they praised like Zechariah did, you know, when he laid the foundations or Zerubbabel when he built the altar and laid the foundations. No opposition, unbelievable. God was pro, and then problems came, and what happened? He stopped. And some of us stop praising just when we need to start. Some of us stop praising just when we need to get it going because praise doesn't just rejoice in what it sees. [00:42:55]

The vision is candlesticks and attached to those candlesticks are pipes. Those pipes go to bowls, one on each side, seven candles here, seven candles here, pipes going to bowls, two olive trees on both sides supplying oil to the bowls. The olive trees are the source. The olive trees speak of a forever flow. The olive trees speak of divine supply. The olive tree speaks of the Holy Spirit and the outpouring thereof. The olive tree speaks of the heavenly provision, the God who stands on your side, the God who stands beside you. [00:44:48]

The Lord Jesus Christ is here today to pour out oil. He's here today to pour out oil. He's here today to pour out his spirit. He's here today to give you power. He's here today to touch your life. He's here today to do the miraculous. He's here today to cure the incurable. He's here today to deliver the desperate. He's here today to minister to lives. He's here today to make a difference. He's here today to win and not lose. He's here today to pronounce himself King of Kings and Lord of Lords. [00:51:02]