Ministry of Power

I see a lot of activity in churches today, but most of the church-related work today is done through money and manpower. But there was a day, friends, when the church used to operate on Holy Ghost power. There's a great dearth of power in our pulpits today.

I see a good many preachers who have enough eloquence and personality and education, but there's a scarceness in the land of men with power from on high. I believe there's a reason for this lack of power today because many don't feel they need it or they just don't believe they can have it. I believe there's a generation of preachers today who don't have a clue what it means to have an anointing from on high.

And there's just as many who don't believe it's possible to even have that anointing. I remember the fight I almost got into with one of my seminary professors. I was sitting for my oral exam for my PhD, and I made the comment that I felt the church should return to vital New Testament Christianity.

And my seminary professor rebuked me. He said, you cannot expect the church of today to be like the early church. He said that was for that day and not today.

I wanted to jump out of my chair and scream, why not? But I kept my mouth shut because I wanted to graduate with my PhD. But I believe that eggheaded seminary professor was wrong. I believe the church should have the power of the early church.

We serve the same God. He is the Lord God Almighty. The Holy Spirit isn't dead, friends, like a lot of folks think he is.

The underground church in China has a dynamic and power of the Holy Spirit. They've counted the cost of following a crucified Christ. And if you were to visit an underground church in China, you would experience the power of God there.

There used to be a time in this country years ago where you could go to church and experience the power of God in a meeting. And I've known a good number of preachers who had that power. Many of them are now in glory.

I remember Manly Beasley saying that he went to hear Duncan Campbell preach to a group of Southern Baptist pastors. And when the meeting was over, many of the pastors were commenting on how they wished they had that power, attending their ministry like Duncan Campbell had on his. And Manly Beasley said it was obvious to all there that Duncan Campbell was a man who lived his life under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, for he had a ministry of power.

And that's the title of my message today, friends, a ministry of power. And my text can be found in the book of 2 Kings in chapter 13. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

We will be in verses 14 through 21. Let me read that portion of Scripture to us at this time. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness, whereof he died.

And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows.

And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it. And Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands.

And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it, and Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot.

And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria. For thou shalt smite the Syrians in Apec, till they have consumed them. Then he said, Take the arrows.

And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice and stayed.

And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times. Then hast thou smitten Syria till thou hast consumed it. Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.

And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming end of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that behold, they spied a band of men, and they cast the man into the sepulture of Elisha.

And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet. I will stop there. Notice that the prophet Elisha is seen here in his death chamber.

In the beginning of our portion of scripture, as he's laying sick and dying, and his audience is a king, the king of Israel, a Joash. He comes in to see him, to lament over the prophet, to get counsel from him. Elisha had a ministry of power, and he was much like his mentor Elijah, for he received a double portion of Elijah's mantle.

In fact, Elisha did twice as many miracles as his mentor. But in our text, we see the dying prophet instruct the king to shoot some arrows out the window. And Elisha puts his trembling hands on the king's hands, and he tells the king to open the window and shoot the arrows, which signified deliverance from Israel's enemies.

I want to focus, friends, on something vitally important here, on this placing of Elijah's hands on the king's hands for a moment. The prophet is trying to impart something vitally important here to Israel's king, by placing his hands on the hands of the king. He is passing to him power, power over the enemies of God, just like Elijah passed his mantle to his disciple Elisha.

I will never forget the last time I saw Adrian Rogers. He was eaten up with cancer, and he could hardly walk across the room. He hardly had the energy to even walk.

And I was in this room with him and Dr. Henry Blackaby and Dr. Ted Randall. It was just the four of us. And when it was time to go, Adrian Rogers threw his arms around me to say goodbye, and he hugged me so hard and so long, he wouldn't let me go.

He held on to me for a good minute, and we parted. The next time I saw him, I was standing over his coffin at Bellevue Baptist Church. But I believe during that time, I believe that Dr. Rogers was imparting to me a blessing as he hugged me that day, for he knew he wouldn't see me again this side of glory.

I really believe, friends, that a man of God can impart a blessing to another. And I believe we can look at the dying prophet Elisha here in our passage, imparting a blessing to the king of Israel by laying his hands on his. It's an impartation of power.

It's a symbolic transfer of power, a power over the enemies of Israel, in this case, the Syrian army. And I'll take note, friends, of this second aspect from our passage, and that is the king of Israel did not appropriate the power allotted to him. He limited it.

Notice in verse 18 where the prophet tells the king to smite the ground with the arrows, and the king just strikes the ground three times and stops. And the next verse states, and the man of God was wroth with him and said, thou shouldst have smitten five or six times, meaning he was limiting his victory over the Syrians by not exercising more faith. And I believe we can do the same thing, friend.

We can limit the power of God in our life through our unbelief and through a lack of seeking God's best for us. I believe that God wants us to have his power in a mighty ministry that is deep and effectual, and he's looking for human instruments to be that channel so his living waters can flow through them as a means of blessings to others. But we often limit ourselves through our perception of what ministry is.

Ministry is not so much activity for God, but rather God's activity through our ministry carried out by holy ghost power. I want to take a moment, friends, and read you a story about W. Graham Scroggie, for it pertains to our subject of power and ministry and how we view ourselves. Some of you may not be familiar with the life and ministry of Graham Scroggie, so allow me, if you will, to give you a brief bio.

Scroggie had a prolific pen ministry, and his books are worth their weight in gold. He was considered in his day one of the best Bible teachers of his generation, equal to the great G. Campbell Morgan. Scroggie trained for the ministry at Spurgeon's College in London and eventually became the pastor of Spurgeon's Church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, during World War II.

Prior to that, he had an immense influence in Edinburgh, Scotland, as the pastor of Charlotte Chapel. My homiletical mentor, Stephen Olford, came into the possession of all the private papers of Graham Scroggie. For Dr. Scroggie was Dr. Olford's homiletical mentor, and I had the rare privilege years ago of being able to go through these handwritten personal papers of Graham Scroggie, all his sermon outlines, all his notes, all his sermons.

It took me several months to go through every document as I was preparing the book, which I co-wrote with Stephen Olford, entitled Olford on Scroggie, and I came across the following incident in the life of Graham Scroggie, which I want to relate to us at this time, friends, reading from Scroggie's own words about how he came to the place in his ministry where he realized his priorities were all wrong. He lacked power, and it had a dramatic effect, which occurred in his life, and it altered his ministry from that point on. If you are a preacher, you'll benefit greatly from the following story, friends.

Listen to Scroggie's words. Can I ever forget the time long ago when my whole life in ministry was suddenly changed and challenged, when it was revealed to me that I was little more than a middleman between my books and my people, when it dawned upon me that I was more anxious to be a preacher than to be God's messenger, and that my master passion was not the accomplishment of the will of God at any cost, and that my ruling motive was not the love of Christ? In that hour, the edifice I had been building, laying runes about me, and for a while all was dark despair, but into the woods my master came, and finding me there in his mercy, he brought me out, out into newness of life, out into fullness of service, and although I blush to think of much that lies between that hour and this, yet I gratefully bear testimony that has come and then, and in that way has been the determining factor of my life. I like that story about Graham Scroggie, friends, and God has honored the memory of Scroggie by giving him a lasting influence for good even to this day, and that brings us to our last aspect from our passage on the prophet Elisha, and that is the power of Elisha's ministry had a lingering influence.

Do you, friend, desire power? Do you desire a lasting influence for the glory of God? Look at verses 20 and 21, and Elisha died, and they buried him, and the bands, the Moabites invaded the land at the coming end of the year, and it came to pass as they were burying a man, that behold, they spied a band of men, and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha, and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet. Well, in this remarkable passage we see that a dead man is brought back to life merely by coming into contact with the bones of Elisha. His ministry had power in life and in death, and I believe each of us here can appropriate the power of God in our own lives if we believe we can and set our faces and hearts to seek in the face of God an earnest prayer for that power.

I've lived a long time, friends. I've sat under many a good preacher through the years. I've had the privilege to hear mighty preaching by men who had the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon them.

There was a time in this country about 40 years ago when you could hear an abundance of preachers who had power with God and influence with men. God's called many of them home. Listen, friends.

We have a dearth of good preaching in this country. There's a new generation of men who know little to nothing of which I speak. They're satisfied with church growth through human means.

But I must ask the question, where is the power? Where is the spiritual transformation in lives? Where is the power of God in a meeting today? I repeat, most get by on money and manpower and organization. Perhaps you are a pastor and you've been listening to this message and you feel that you're kind of like Graham Scroggie in that you're merely a middleman between his books and his people, while Scroggie was just dishing out information. But there was no transformation occurring in his hearer's hearts at the time.

He hungered for more. He hungered for power from on high and influence in his generation. He spent two years seeking it, friends, two years of a deep searching of his Bible and a deep seeking of his God.

Then God met him and changed the course of his ministry from that point forward to one of power and influence. If you want power from on high, it is there, friend. How bad do you want it? God wants you to be like the King of Israel and exercise your faith and smite the ground as much as you can to get that power, not to limit your ministry through your unbelief or lack of effort.

We live in some of the darkest days that human history has ever seen. I've never seen a time in my life, friends, where perversion is so accepted by society and so promoted by government, where sin is so commonplace that no one blushes anymore. There's no shame in society any longer.

There's little holiness in our churches today, for church people believe they can live like the devil and still go to heaven because they view God as just a fond, loving fellow who's just like them. We've shrunken God down to man's level in our day, and it's a crying shame how it's impacted our churches to such a sad degree that many preachers are afraid to preach on sin or to preach on hell or to preach on repentance or the cross or the bloody Savior who hung there for sinful men. It's as if the church today has talked itself into believing that hell doesn't exist and there is no punishment for sin, and many men stand behind their pulpits preaching in the energy of the flesh while trying to win a soul to Christ through an argument, and people leave the church the same way they came in, unchanged.

Listen, friends, it's the activity of the Holy Spirit that changes lives for eternity, and if God is absent from our sanctuaries, then all we're doing is being middlemen between our books and our people. We're merely dishing out information, and we attempt to occupy our congregations for an hour or so before we go and have our lunch, but there's little transformation for eternity. It is my prayer that someone listening to this message will be honest enough to admit that they are sick of the status quo in what we call Sunday morning church in this country and hunger for more, hunger for power from on high, and believe God and seek God for that power so they too can be a mighty instrument in the hand of God for their generation and for God's glory, a ministry of powers, one of lasting influence.

Let us go to God for that power, friends. We need power in prayer. We need power in the pulpit.

We need power to be witnesses to the lost. Let us pray for that power as we go now to a time of prayer.