TEXT: John 9:1-34 NLT.
INTRODUCTION:
·
This message that I share with you today is NOT
a message to “GET-ON-US,” but rather a very positive message of………………………..AWAKENING!
·
As a Church, we have been BLESSED to witness
some INCREDIBLE powerful demonstrations of the Kingdom of God!
o
Consider what we have experienced:
§
Multiple healings of cancer!
§
Tumors being healed!
§
Those addicted being set free!
§
Bondages of sin being broken!
§
A woman in a coma being brought out and
completely restored!
§
Those confirmed dead, being raise back to full
life again!
§
And, the GREATEST miracle of all,………………PEOPLE
BEING SAVED
·
And the Lord said: “To whom much is given; much is required!”
o
In other words:
“We have a responsibility to STEWARD what it is God has revealed to us;
taught us; and given to us as a Church!
·
These POWERFUL demonstrations of the Kingdom of
God are NOT meant to simply be VIEWED and then forget about them!
o
They not only change the person who directly
benefits from them, but they are also INTENDED to change us,…………..THE CHURCH!
·
So, today, I want to talk to you about these
powerful demonstrations of the Kingdom of God and the fact that God intended
for them to be the NORM for ALL Followers of Jesus!
·
You see, we have been given both AUTHORITY and
POWER from Jesus Christ Himself through the Holy Spirit!
o
That power was first poured out at Pentecost,
and as WE today experience OUR Pentecost, we too are FILLED with the POWER of
the Holy Spirit to exercise the AUTHORITY of Jesus Christ, as we PROCLAIM the
Gospel message!
·
When we are in TOTAL surrender to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, …………We can EXPECT
manifestations of the Kingdom of God to normally accompany our ministry!
·
Those Kingdom Demonstrations are manifest
through: Signs and Wonders, Healings,
Miracles, and Prophetic Pronunciations!
TRANSITION:
“Today, we are going to take a deeper look
at our responses to the Demonstrations of the Kingdom of God!”
I.
WHAT ARE DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE
KINGDOM OF GOD?
a.
Demonstrations of the Kingdom of God are:
i.
Signs!
ii.
Wonders!
iii.
Miracles!
iv.
Healings!
v.
And, Prophetic pronunciations!
b.
They are the ANSWER to the Prayer Jesus taught
us as His Disciples to pray in Matthew
6:9-13
“Our Father who is in Heaven, Holy is Your Name! Your KINGDOM come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven…..”
c.
Allow me to give you a brief description of these DEMONSTRATIONS of
the KINGDOM:
|
II.
THE PURPOSE OF THE
DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
a.
These POWERFUL Demonstrations of the Kingdom of
God, are given by God, through the Holy Spirit, to the Followers of Jesus, for
the purpose of VALIDATING and CONFIRMING the Gospel message being preached, and
the TOTAL Lordship of JESUS CHRIST!
i.
Allow me to show this to you from the Word of
God!
Mark 16:19-20 NLT.
19 When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with
them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s
right hand. 20 And the disciples went everywhere and preached,
and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous
signs.
Acts 4:29-31 NLT.
29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us,
your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may
miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant
Jesus.”
31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God
with boldness.
Hebrews 2:3-4 NLT.
3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore
this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and
then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? 4 And God confirmed the message by giving signs and
wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.
III.
THERE ARE 3-WAYS TO RESPOND TO
THE POWER OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
a.
And these 3-responses work a lot like “LEAVEN”
in our heart and mind!
b.
Now, for those of us who are not cooks, Leaven
is Yeast.
i.
Yeast causes dough to rise, and has the ability
to “work-through” the entire batch of dough, affecting total change to the
nature and quality of the dough!
ii.
Two of these “LEAVEN” taught by Jesus are evil,
and like yeast, will work its way through our WHOLE heart and our spiritual
relationship with the Lord!
iii.
If these 2-Leavens (or, Yeast) are allowed to go
“unchecked,” they will affect our heart, effectively ROBBING us of the
Privilege and blessing God intended for us to experience from these
demonstrations of His Kingdom power!
1.
And,……..They will render us ……………USELESS in the
Kingdom of God in these Last Days!
c. These
2-evil Leavens are mentioned by Jesus in Mark
8:13-21
13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and he
crossed to the other side of the lake. 14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food.
They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.” 16 At this they began to argue with each other
because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or
understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t
you hear?’[a] Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread,
how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?” “Twelve,” they said. 20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how
many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?” “Seven,” they said. 21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
d.
The First
Leaven is the Leaven of the PHARISEES!
i.
This is responding to Powerful Demonstrations of
the Kingdom of God in a RELIGIOUS manner!
1.
This is when,………….People SEE the miracles and
healings, but there is absolutely NO affect upon them!
2.
They continue in their same old RELIGIOUS
patterns of life, thinking that they are serving Jesus, when in reality they
are……………DECEIVED!
a.
They are completely UNMOVED by what God is
trying to ESTABLISH within their life!
b.
They see…………..They shout………………..They
sing………..and they’re SILENT!
i.
As we have already explained,………….These POWERFUL
Demonstrations of the Kingdom of God are meant to VALIDATE the proclamation of
the Gospel!
c.
However, when they are not TRULY received, and
allowed to CHANGE who we are and how we live and minister,……..then they are of
NO affect!
3.
Allow me to explain why many can witness the
POWER of the Kingdom of God through the miraculous, and STILL be unchanged!
ii.
For many Followers of Jesus, the spirit of
religion has “DERAILED” these Demonstrations of the Kingdom!
iii.
This dominate spirit has very successfully done
this through affecting the HEART of Followers of Jesus, poisoning them, and
“NULLIFYING” the intended purposes of these POWERFUL demonstrations of God’s
Kingdom!
iv.
Many Followers of Jesus have been SO USED to a
“WARPED” version of “CHURCH,” that when faced with what the CHURCH is TRULY
supposed to be,………….They prefer to remain the same, and do the same as they
have always been and done!
e.
Why would Followers of Jesus CHOOSE a WARPED
version of what the church is supposed to be, instead of the Powerful reality
of what Christ intended His Church to be?.........
i.
For some,……..It would require………..
1.
Too much WORK!
2.
Too much SURRENDER!
3.
Too much altering of our WILL to God’s WILL!
4.
Too much CHANGE!
ii.
It is just so MUCH easier to SEE these Powerful
Demonstrations of God’s Kingdom, and celebrate them,………..but not be
……….TRANSFORMED by them!
1.
And for those who refuse to REPENT of this
deception of the spirit of religion, I quote the very words of Jesus from Matthew 25:6-12
6 “At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look,
the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’ 7 “All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their
lamps. 8 Then the five foolish ones asked the others,
‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ 9 “But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for
all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were gone to buy oil, the
bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage
feast, and the door was locked.11 Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned,
they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’ 12 “But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know
you!’
f.
The second
Leaven is the Leaven of Herod!
i.
This is the humanistic “ENTERTAINMENT” response
to the powerful Demonstrations of the Kingdom of God!
ii.
This is PENTECOSTAL NOSTALGIA!
1.
We love to be in a GOOD SERVICE!
2.
We love to hear a GOOD PREACHER!
3.
We love to listen to GOOD SINGERS!
4.
And we love to Reminisce about our favorite
preachers, singers, gospel groups, and Camp Meetings!
a.
But under ABSOLUTELY NO WAY are we going to
embrace how the HOLY SPIRIT is MOVING,…….TODAY!
iii.
This is the Leaven of………..HEROD!
iv.
Notice how Herod responded to Jesus when He was
brought before him…..
Luke
23:6-12 NLT.
6 “Oh, is he a Galilean?”
Pilate asked. 7 When they said that he was,
Pilate sent him to Herod Antipas, because Galilee was under Herod’s
jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time. 8 Herod was
delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and
had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle.9 He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus
refused to answer.10 Meanwhile, the leading
priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their
accusations. 11 Then Herod and his soldiers
began mocking and ridiculing Jesus. Finally, they put a royal robe on him and
sent him back to Pilate. 12 (Herod and Pilate, who had
been enemies before, became friends that day.)
v.
King Herod got MAD when the SHOW was CANCELLED!
g.
We are AFFECTED and INFECTED by the Leaven of Herod,
when the Powerful Demonstrations of the Kingdom of God do not FIT within our
parameters of HOW and WHAT we think God’s Kingdom SHOULD be!
i.
And when the Holy Spirit begins to MOVE in a
whole new way,……………We FIGHT against it, much like Paul did when he persecuted
the Church!
h.
And for those Followers of Jesus whose hearts
are LEAVENED with Herod’s Leaven,…………. Unless you confess this sinful Leaven and repent, …….You will find yourself NOT a
member of Christ’s Bride,………His ONE true Church,………but a member of a RELIGIOUS
MUSEUM!
i.
AND,…………..by believing this lie of the enemy,
and allowing this leaven to work its way through you,………..
ii.
…………….You will be allowed to grow with the
“WHEAT” of God’s Kingdom, BUT You might just find yourself as one of the
“WEEDS” that God removes from among the “WHEAT!”
i.
In Closing,…………I want to end
on a good and powerful note!
i.
There is still ONE LEAVEN that
Jesus spoke of!
IV.
THE LEAVEN OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
a.
Listen to the Words of Jesus in Matthew 13:33
NLT.
”Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making
bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it
permeated every part of the dough.”
b.
When we allow the Leaven of the Kingdom of
Heaven to permeate our lives completely,…….it will TRANSFORM US!
i.
We become Kingdom People!
1.
Kingdom MINDED!
2.
Kingdom ACTIONS!
3.
Embracing Kingdom PRINCIPLES!
4.
Embracing Kingdom POWER!
5.
And, BEING a “GATE” for the Kingdom of Heaven to
be Powerfully Demonstrated here on EARTH!
ii.
“YOUR KINGDOM COME,……YOUR WILL BE DONE,…..ON
EARTH,…….AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!”
1.
………..THROUGH ……………US!
iii.
And……THAT…..is
the purpose of being the CHURCH!
