So Much More: Moving Beyond Kingdom Principles to Kingdom Power (16 page)

As Jesus explained that He wouldn’t be with them much longer, the disciples didn’t understand. They want to know, “Why do you have to go away Jesus? We love being with you and doing life and ministry with you.” Think through how the disciples must have felt. For three years they had been living with, traveling with, eating with, and doing life with Jesus. They had a front row seat as He turned water into wine, walked on water, multiplied the loaves and fish and allowed the lame to walk, the blind to see, the sick to be healed, and the dead raised. They were crazy in love with this guy and convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was the Messiah. They wanted to be with Him forever. So, when Jesus said He was leaving and going to die soon, you can imagine that absolutely crushed them.

If you have ever been through the experience of knowing the person you love most on the earth is dying, you know it’s one of the most heartrending experiences you can ever go through. I would imagine that is exactly how the disciples were feeling at this point. Jesus, the One they loved so much, was telling them that He was going to die soon. In the midst of this time of preparation for His death, Jesus began to teach again about the Holy Spirit coming to empower the disciples after His death. In the course of this teaching, He makes what must have seemed to the disciples to be some crazy, outlandish statements. For instance, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). Jesus had been informing His disciples that He was leaving. He told them they couldn’t go with Him and they needed to stay and advance the kingdom. He made this amazing promise that when He was gone they would not just preach the message He had been preaching about the kingdom but they would also do the things He had been doing that demonstrated the kingdom—and even greater things!

But how would they have the power to do these greater things than Jesus did? Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth” (vv. 16–17). Jesus said the way they would be empowered to do the things He had been doing and even greater things was that He was sending someone else, the Holy Spirit, to empower them to do even greater things than He had done.

This is an incredible promise that many of us have dismissed and thought surely Jesus didn’t really mean we would do greater things than He did. But that phrase in the Greek that is translated “greater things” is an amazing phrase. It literally means “greater things.” How would His disciples, and as Jesus said, anyone who has faith in Him, be able to do greater things than Jesus had been doing? Because Jesus was going to send another counselor, the Holy Spirit.

We use the word
another
in a couple of different ways. Let me illustrate. A few years ago I was in a car accident and my little red Saturn was totaled. Because the insurance company totaled my car, I had to get another car. I didn’t get another Saturn. I got a Hyundai this time. It was another car but it was another car of
a different kind.
That is one way we use the word
another
. There is a second way we use this same word. If I had gotten another red Saturn built in the same year, it would have still been another car but it would have been another of
the same kind.

In the original Greek, there are actually two different words for “another.” One word means “another of a different kind.” That’s not the word used here. The word here means “another of the exact same kind.” When we understand this, it is really rich. Jesus is saying to His friends, “I am leaving but I’m not leaving you alone. When I leave I will ask the Father and He will send you another counselor, of the exact same kind that I have been.” It’s not like Jesus is saying, “You had Me but now you have to settle for the Holy Spirit and He’s okay. He’s another counselor different than Me and not nearly as good or as powerful as having Me with you, but you will be okay.” That’s not what He said.

What Jesus literally said was, “I’m sending you another of the exact same kind; a duplicate of Me.” He is not saying that the Father is going to send a lesser counselor or an inferior counselor, but rather, “When Holy Spirit comes He will be another counselor of the exact same kind that I have been. He will empower you do the same things I have done when I have been with you.”

And just in case they missed what Jesus was saying, Jesus made another amazing statement: “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7,
NKJV
). Think about how outrageous this statement must have been to the disciples. For the past three years you have been there for all the miracles, all the healings, all the deliverances, all the raising people from the dead. Not only that, but Jesus had delegated power and authority to these guys and they had both preached the message of the kingdom and done the ministry of the kingdom. They had healed the sick and taken authority over demons. At this point they were probably thinking, “It can’t get any better than being with Jesus and ministering with Jesus. This is the ultimate pinnacle.” Evidently it could get better than that because Jesus just said, “It is to your advantage that I am leaving because when I go I will send Holy Spirit and you will do even greater things than I have done.” Jesus was clearly saying when Holy Spirit came and they were baptized in the Spirit and fire it would be better for them than having Him there with them.

I think many believers often wonder, “What would it have been like to be with Jesus in His ministry? To see Him heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, do miracles? Wow, I would love to have been there for that.” But Jesus said we are better off having the Holy Spirit, because having the Spirit in us is better than having Jesus with us. Why? Because the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus to do signs and wonders that demonstrated the kingdom wants to fill us and overflow out of us empowering us to do the same things He did.

Just as Jesus promised, a short time later He was arrested and crucified. The disciples fled in fear of their lives. Then Jesus resurrected from the dead and spent forty days with the disciples. I think we sometimes gloss over this and have the idea that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples just long enough to convince them He was alive; and then boom, He ascended to heaven and was gone. But for forty days He appeared to them and taught them. What did He teach during these forty days? “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). He taught them more about the kingdom.

Then, right before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gathered His disciples together for some final instruction. It is recorded for us in Acts 1. Now I’ve got to tell you, if someone rises from the dead to say something we ought to pay attention, don’t you think?

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

—A
CTS
1:4–5

John had baptized in water but he promised that when Jesus came He was going to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the disciples you need that! Evidently these guys had not experienced Spirit baptism yet. And Jesus had instructed them previously that it wouldn’t happen until He returned to the Father. And now He was saying He was about ready to go the Father and they would soon be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

There is an intriguing passage in John 20:22. Following Jesus’ resurrection it says, “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” After His resurrection Jesus breathed on the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit and then after spending the next month teaching them about the kingdom, he told them they needed to go and wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Evidently this was something different that was going to happen to them.

I believe when Jesus breathed on the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit this was the point of their conversion. They had seen the risen Christ, who had died to pay for their sins, and they put their complete faith in Him and so they received the Holy Spirit. Make no mistake about it, there is no conversion, no new birth, apart from the Holy Spirit infusing our dead spirit and making us alive again. We cannot be converted and become a Christian without the Holy Spirit regenerating our heart. But there is something else, something different, something more. Jesus told the disciples to go and wait for it in Jerusalem. It was the baptism in the Holy Spirit. What was going to happen when the Holy Spirit came on them?

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

—A
CTS
1:8

Jesus was saying in effect, “I am getting ready to leave and return to heaven. As the Father sent Me, so send I you. My assignment to destroy the works of the devil is now your assignment. You are to go out and preach the message of the kingdom and do the ministry that demonstrates the kingdom, but you are not ready yet. You have the assignment but you haven’t been empowered yet to fulfill the assignment. Because even though the Holy Spirit came
in
you at conversion, He has to come
on
you to prepare you for ministry. You need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.” Bill Johnson puts it this way: “He is in me for my sake, but He’s upon me for yours.” At conversion the Holy Spirit comes in us to begin to transform us, but when we are baptized in the Spirit, He comes on us in power for the benefit of others.”
³
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And Jesus is clear that His followers need that!

So put yourself in the place of these disciples. Jesus has just told you to go and wait for the baptism in the Holy Spirit and when that happens you will receive some serious power. He said, “Don’t go out and try to be my witnesses without that power.” ‘Wait,” you think. “What is this going to look like? We’re going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and it will be better than having Jesus here with us? We’re going to have power to be witnesses to the whole world?” They were just waiting and waiting in that Upper Room, and then it happened.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

—A
CTS
2:1–4

Put yourself in that Upper Room for a moment. You know Jesus has promised you would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And so you’re there and you’re waiting and you’re praying, and then all of a sudden you hear this intense noise that sounds like a hurricane rushing through the room. Then you see tongues of fire come and sit on people’s heads and everyone starts speaking in languages they don’t know. I don’t think they wondered, “Is this it? Is this what Jesus was talking about?” They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt this was it! They knew they had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. And just as Jesus promised, they received power to continue to advance the kingdom by both preaching the message Jesus preached and doing the ministry He did.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

—A
CTS
2:5–8

The Holy Spirit came and baptized the disciples and others who were in that Upper Room, and there was a huge crowd gathered in Jerusalem from all over the world to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. These people from different nations spoke many different languages, but all of a sudden they started hearing these Galileans speaking in their own native language.

One might have said, “I understand that. I hear them speaking Arabic.” Another, “Mama mia! That’s Italian!” Someone else, “Wait! That was Chinese.” All these people were gathered from all different regions of the world and spoke different languages, and yet miraculously they all heard the message being shared in their own language. They must have been confused as to what all this could possibly mean. It wasn’t natural. It was supernatural. Now that’s the Holy Spirit! When something happens and you know there is no way for it to be happening by natural means, only supernatural, that’s the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s power is not something that can be mimicked. You can’t look at something the Holy Spirit does and say, “I can do that.” When Jesus baptized these early followers in the Holy Spirit, there was an incredible power evidenced that caused the others who saw what was transpiring to be bewildered and amazed and ask, ‘What is this?”

“Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine’” (Acts 2:13). Evidently there was something so out of the ordinary about the way these people were acting that some thought they were drunk. But they were not drunk with wine. It was way too early in the day for that to be happening! They were drunk with the Holy Spirit. They were out of control because they were under the supernatural control of the Spirit of God.