Power from on High

What do you need God’s power to accomplish? Maybe it is to overcome an addiction, survive a difficult season you’re in, to parent your children well, or to lead a group or initiative. There are many reasons why we might seek God for his power.

As we come to the final verses of Luke’s gospel in Luke 24:36-53, Jesus is promising power to his disciples to do just one thing: fulfill the mission to tell the nations about him. Enough warnings had been given by Jesus about the difficulty of the task that was ahead. That fact that he was unjustly condemned and crucified just days before made the point. The world will strongly oppose the message intended to bring them life and peace. And it will prove costly to those being charged with bringing that message to the world. They would need the power of God to get it done. And many of them would, in the coming years, be imprisoned, beaten, and martyred for believing in and preaching Jesus Christ.

While no one in Canada today can claim that kind of persecution, we no less need his power to accomplish the mission. Overt persecution is not the challenge we face. Satan has been far more subtle in the West, leading us to enjoy our prosperity and pursue entertainment and to focus on ourselves to the extent that few of those who claim to be Christians actually engage in the mission at all. We need the power of God to overcome the temptation to be unengaged in what Jesus gave us to do. We need the power of God to be less about ourselves and more about those who are still in their sin and headed for a Christless eternity. We need the power of God to sense the urgency of the mission once again and to be willing to sacrifice for the sake of those who do not yet know Christ. We need “power from on high.”

This is the final message, number 90, in The Gospel of Lukeseries which began on November 3, 2013. To access the whole series, go to the sermon archive and use the drop-down menu to find the six parts of The Gospel of Lukein audio or video formats.

Sermon Notes

The Gospel of Luke | Pt. 6
Power From on High
Pastor Todd Dugard // Luke 24:36–53
May 5, 2019

In Christ, I will experience “power from on high” to...

...overcome all fears and doubts (v. 36–43)

...grasp the implications of God’s Word (v. 44–45)

...embrace the message of salvation (v. 46–47)

...witness to the world of God’s forgiveness (v. 48–49)

...be the church (v. 50–53)