The Jesus Way: Finding the Way of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke | Donovan Rillion | The Empowered Way

I wanna start by asking you a question. Have

you ever tried driving when you're exhausted?

Maybe you went on a long trip and you had to

make your way home, but the week was really long.

It was really exhausting, but you still got to

get home. So you decide we're going to tough

it out. And so maybe if you're like me, you stop

at the gas station, you grab an energy drink,

some dill pickle sunflower seeds, and you get

on the road. Maybe you'll stop at a Bucky's and

you'll get a brisket sandwich, some chips and

some beaver nuggets. If you know, you know. Maybe.

You'll turn the music up really loud. You'll

roll the windows down. You'll blare the music

so that you can't hear anything. You can't even

hear yourself think. And you'll scream, sing

along with it all in an effort to stay awake.

And it might work for a while. Like you may get

pretty far. You may even get home. But what does

that really do for you? And what does it really

do to you? Think about the junk we fill ourselves

with to try to stay awake. You put your body

through this agony of feeding it, this junk,

and you've damaged your ears with the loud music,

and you've wore out your voice because you were

scream singing the whole way. And you don't really

know how you got home because you dozed off a

couple times, but you made it. You just put your

life and everybody else on the road's life in

danger. I want you to think about what it's like

to drive exhausted. And then I want you to think

about what it's like When you've had a good night's

sleep and you're not exhausted and you had a

good breakfast and you get on the road and maybe

you've got a cup of coffee or maybe you just

got a water because you feel like you're fueled

for this journey. It's different, right? It's

the same drive. It's the same car. It's the same

you, but a completely different experience. You

know, a lot of people. are trying to live life.

And you may be in this situation where you're

trying to live life the first way. You're trying

to live life full of junk and you're doing everything

you can. You're white knuckling down the road

so that you can just make it to the next day,

make it to the next destination, make it to the

end. You're relying on your own efforts. You're

doing whatever you can just to get through. And

sadly, I think that's especially true for a lot

of us as we try to follow Jesus. and as we try

to live good lives. But what I hope we can understand

more today is that our problem isn't needing

better techniques. It's not needing different

strategies. It's not needing to try harder. It's

not needing to do better. It's simply needing

power. It's needing a better fuel system. It's

needing something better than the Red Bull. It's

needing something better than my own strength

and my own power. It's needing... God's power,

a much better power than anything I could ever

produce on my own. So I want us to start looking

at Luke chapter 24. We're closing in on the end

Luke 24 · chapter mention

of our series in the gospel of Luke. And so we're

going to read this first passage. If it's underlined

and you'd like to, I'd love for you to read it

with me. If not, then that's on you. All right.

So here we go. Luke 24, starting in verses 36,

going through 43. As they were talking about

these things, Jesus himself stood among them

and said to them, peace to you. But they were

startled and frightened and thought they saw

a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled?

And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my

hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch

me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh

and bones as you see that I have. And when he

had said this, he showed them his hands and his

feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy

and were marveling, he said to them, Have you

anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece

of broiled fish. And he took it and he ate it

before them. So right there, Jesus again is proving

that he's alive, but now he's doing it to all

of these disciples that are in this room. He

shows up, he proves that he's alive and not only

that he's alive, but that he has power over death.

And they're afraid because they haven't quite

seen him yet. They know he's not in the tomb

anymore, but they haven't all seen Jesus. And

so when he shows up in this room, they're thinking,

is this a ghost? Like, how'd he get in here?

The door's closed, the door's locked. How'd he

get in here? So they're thinking it's a ghost,

but he responds with, peace to you. And then

he points to his wounds. He eats some food so

that they can see that it's really him in the

flesh. And he says, does a ghost, does a spirit

eat? Does it have wounds? Does it have flesh

that you can touch? So he wants them to understand

that he's defeated death because until Easter,

until that resurrection day, death had never

lost. It had always won. It had an undefeated

record. But Jesus, in all of his power, fully

displayed in the resurrection, wants them to

see what the power of God can do. And if he has

power over death, if Jesus has power over death,

then everything he says and everything that he

does carries divine and supreme authority. Because...

I don't know about you, but if I see somebody

take the beating and die the death that Jesus

died and then he rises again, I'm going to follow

that guy. I'm going to follow the guy that can

defeat death, especially if that guy promises

me that I can defeat death too. I'm going to

follow him. And so that's what happens here.

And that matters because Jesus is about to do

some teaching in verses 44 through 48 that I

believe could only be trusted. if it was from

someone with that kind of power, someone that

is truly God. So let's read the rest of this

portion. Then he said to them, these are my words

that I spoke to you while I was still with you,

that everything written about me in the law of

Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be

fulfilled. And then he opened their minds to

understand the scriptures. And he said to them,

thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer

and on the third day rise from the dead, and

that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should

be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning

from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

So Jesus connects the law of Moses, and he connects

the prophets and the Psalms, and he brings it

all together, all pointing to the suffering that

they foretold, all pointing to the death that

they foretold, and all pointing, most importantly,

to the resurrection that they foretold. And all

of it was so that man could be forgiven of sin

and restored to relationship with God. That was

the point of it all. And that's good news. And

that good news message is something that we have

to proclaim and not just has to be proclaimed,

but proclaimed to everyone everywhere for all

time. That is a message that must be shared.

And we can ask the question, well, who's going

to proclaim it? Well, Jesus says, you're going

to proclaim it. You are. I am. We are going to

proclaim it. Because we're witnesses. That's

what he says. And I'm going to take him at his

word. We are witnesses of what has happened,

of the fulfillment of the law, of the fulfillment

of the prophets. We are witnesses. And witnesses

have a responsibility, right? Like think about

a witness in a legal sense is someone who is

called upon to testify. And if you're called

upon to testify, you're being called on to bear

witness or give evidence about. A truth. So we've

got to tell the truth. So we've all been called

on as witnesses. We're on the stand and we're

being questioned by the world, by the people

around us, by our relationships. Everyone that

sees our lives is questioning what do they know

about the truth? What do they know about this

case? And so Jesus is telling them, you've got

a message to share and you've seen it with your

own eyes. You are an eye. witness. And so you're

going to share that message, but not just yet.

I want you to see what he says in verse 49 and

behold, I'm sending the promise of my father

upon you, but stay in the city until you are

clothed with power from on high. Something I

want you to hear this morning is that calling

requires empowerment. We have not been called

to testify in a case where we are not offered

protection. We've not been called to testify

in a case where we're not offered power. I want

you to think of it like this. If I hire a contractor

to build a house for me, then I have to supply

the materials, or at least I have to give him

some money so that he can get his hands on it

and get some extra hands so that they can build

the house. I've got to give him the resources

to do this. Likewise, Jesus is commissioning

his followers to go into all nations, to go to

every people everywhere and proclaim, testify.

the good news message. Living lives that proclaim

a good, holy, and living God. But they have to

be given the resources to do that. And he refers

to this promise. He refers to this promise of

power, of being clothed with power from on high.

And so when we think about, well, what's he talking

about? It's really simple. It's the Holy Spirit.

It is the Spirit of God being promised to be

poured out on all people. There are several passages

in the Old Testament that speak directly to this.

From Isaiah to Ezekiel, God says over and over

again, I am going to pour out my Spirit on my

people. If you're a child of God, then you count

as his people. And he's going to, well, he's

already poured his Spirit out onto you. But I

especially love this passage in Joel 2, verses

Joel 2:28–29

28 -29. And it shall come to pass afterward that

I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your

sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your

old men shall dream dreams, and your young men

shall see visions. Even on the male and female

servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.

See, the plan was always to fill all who follow

Jesus. All who... accept this good news to fill

those people with the Holy Spirit so that we

could carry out the life that Jesus has called

us to. Because that life's not easy. That life

is not easy to fulfill. It's not an easy walk

to go into this world and all of its dangers

and all of the scariness and worries that we

might have. It's not easy, but God has promised

power because power is required to live lives

that testify the good news. I want you, using

this kind of legal idea, I want you to think

about a good crime movie. And in this movie,

there's probably a prosecutor who feels like

they have got the smoking gun. They have got

the surefire eyewitness that knows exactly what

happened, that saw it with their own eyes, that

if they testify, case solved. And that's good.

Until the crime boss comes around and he threatens

the eyewitness. And he maybe says, if you testify.

and you get me in trouble, I'll do damage to

you. Or maybe he doesn't threaten the eyewitness

with damage to them, but he threatens damaging

their family or hurting their family. And so

if you testify, it's going to be bad news for

your family. Or if you testify, it'll be bad

news for your career or bad news for your social

life. And so he puts this fear. in the witness

so that now the witness is discouraged from testifying.

And if it does testify, it's not going to testify

the whole truth because that's scary. Witnesses

need courage and courage comes from power because

in this life, there is a very real enemy who

will use fear. He will use doubt and he will

use pressure and he'll use insecurity to keep

us from testifying, to keep us quiet. And I do

believe that for far too long, Satan, the ultimate

crime boss, has been trying to keep witnesses

of the good news quiet. And because he has been

successful in keeping some of us quiet, we have

seen the kingdom not grow like it's supposed

to. You think about the church in Acts. I can't

wait until we get into our Acts series. The church

in Acts was not scared of what Rome was going

to do to them. They weren't scared of what the

enemy was going to do to them. They weren't scared

of what it would bring for their lives. They

weren't scared if they would go hungry. They

weren't scared if they would die because they

knew where their power came from. And if they

could trust in that power, then they could be

fearless. And so we need, witnesses need power.

And that's why the Spirit's power matters. That's

why this promise is so important because Jesus

isn't interested in sending us out unprepared.

He's not interested in sending us out unequipped.

He is giving us everything we need. The disciples,

they've already seen this power displayed. They

watched Jesus face temptations. They watched

Jesus experience hardship and experience grief.

They saw... the Son of God on earth endure unimaginable

suffering and a gruesome death, and yet he still

fulfilled his mission. He still spread the good

news. And how did he do it? Through the power

of God. And that's the exact same power he's

promising them. And what's true for them is true

for us. If they get power, we get power. If this

promise was going to be poured out to all who

are in Christ, then we have access to it. With

that said, I want you to think about the difference

between maybe rowing a boat and sailing. So where

I grew up on the coast, we had a lot of people

that had sailboats. They sailed and they had

sailing camps in the summer where kids could

learn how to make a sailboat work. But me, I

liked kayaking. I liked a good little rowboat.

And so I would take my kayak and I'd go out on

the gulf and I would paddle out into the water

and it was awesome. But it was also really tiring.

It was hard. And, you know, at the end of the

day, I wouldn't have gotten very far because,

you know, you're swimming against the tide. And

so I wouldn't have gotten very far. My muscles

are sore. And then I got to paddle back and it's

kind of difficult. But then I'd look out across

the water and I'd see somebody in a sailboat

and they are flying. They are going way faster

than I am. And they look like they are having

a way better time. than I was. And they were

just like sitting there drinking drinks and eating

snacks while I'm sitting here struggling to row.

I want you to hold on to that thought because

there's a difference there, right? The difference

in paddling your own boat and letting out the

sails and letting the wind take you way faster.

The difference is the power source. Instead of

relying on the strength of one man or relying

on the strength of one woman or relying on the

strength of a couple people, we're relying on

one of the strongest power sources in the world,

wind. And so when it comes to our walk with Christ,

am I relying on my power or am I relying on his?

Am I relying on my own strength or am I relying

on God's strength? You know, the God that created

the universe and shaped the earth. With his own

hands? The God that formed the most complex systems

in the world with his own mind and his words?

Yeah, that God is offering us a power like his

own. So am I going to rely on mine or his? Well,

the choice there should be easy. But then the

next question is, well, how do I access that

power? Well, the first thing I want us to talk

about is who has access to that power? Because

for the followers, they're looking at Jesus and

he's saying, this promise has been made to you.

And they're like, well, to all of us or to just

some of us? Like are the 12 the only ones who

are going to get the power or do we all get the

power? Well, the Old Testament says all. And

Jesus says all. And so when we say who has access,

what I would say is the children of God. In the

Old Testament, that would be Israel. But in the

New Covenant, it's the disciples of Christ. It's

all who have given their lives to Jesus. That

is who has access to this power. So before we

can talk about living in this empowered way,

we have to ask, am I a follower of Jesus? Am

I a disciple? And I want to define... Who a disciple

is, who a follower of Jesus is. And the easiest

way I could think to do that is to look at what

Peter says in Acts chapter two, verse 38 through

39. Repent and be baptized every one of you in

the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness

of your sins and you will receive the gift of

the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and

for your children and for all who are far off.

So when Peter's saying that, he's saying that

to thousands of people. He's not just saying

it to the 12. He's saying it to thousands of

people. And what he's saying is, is if you will

repent, if you'll turn away from your sin, if

you will be baptized, die to yourself, rise to

new life, you have access not just to forgiveness

of sins. Yeah, that's important. And that is

a very good thing. But also to the Spirit's power.

And then that day, 3 ,000 people were baptized.

And he says, Those 3 ,000 people, they get power.

And then who else? Their children. In other words,

the people that they disciple and bring into

a relationship with Christ, they get power. And

who else? Oh, well, all who are far off. Essentially,

he's saying everyone who comes to know Jesus,

gives their life to him, surrenders, gets access

to the Spirit's power, and it all starts with

belonging to Jesus. That's pretty simple, right?

You mean all I've got to do is join the club

and I get access to this power? Yes. It starts

with belonging to Jesus. If you want to live

in the Jesus way, you have to first give yourself

fully to Jesus. And when you do that, the promise

will be given to you. And I think there's some

in this room that are trying to live that exhausted,

driving life, that are trying to fuel themselves

and just white knuckle their way through, and

hopefully they'll make it to their destination.

There are some of us that we haven't actually

received this power, this better fuel. And you

might believe in God. You may show up to church.

You may listen to the songs. You may even sing

the songs. You may read your Bible and do the

devotionals. But you haven't truly surrendered

to God yet. And you haven't turned away from

the sinful and selfish ways of this world. You

haven't truly become an apprentice of Jesus that

is following him so that you can learn his ways

and then go do his ways. And as you try to live

this life without the right power source, you

find it impossibly hard to look like Jesus. And

if you're feeling like it's hard, I want you

to consider what Paul says in Romans 8, verse

Romans 8:9

9. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ

does not belong to Him. That's a hard verse to

read. Because there's a lot of us. That maybe

we're walking and we feel like, I don't feel

like I've been powered. I don't feel like I have

this power source that Jesus is talking about,

that Paul is talking about, that Peter is talking

about. I don't feel like I've got that power.

And so we have to wrestle with the question,

do we belong to Jesus? Have we? Repented, turned

away from the sinful natures of this world. Have

we been baptized, made the choice to die to ourselves

and live for him? Have we given ourselves to

belonging to Jesus? And I'll say it. There are

some people that have been in church for 50 years

and they have not belonged to Jesus. And that's

okay. It's not too late to start. I'm not asking

you to do more. I'm not asking you to try harder.

I don't think that's what the Bible is asking

you to do either. What I think, what I believe

actually, is that Jesus is calling us to simply

belong to him. It's about belonging. It's very

possible that some of us have been near Jesus,

like we've been kind of following him in the

shadows, or maybe we've been a little bit closer.

Maybe we've been a part of the church. We've

been in the church our whole lives and, you know,

we've done the churchy things. We've been near

Jesus, near his people. We've seen the power

from afar maybe, but we haven't accessed the

power. I don't want to be in that boat. I don't

want to look back on my life and say I had access

to the power, but I never grabbed it. I never

used it. It's like if you've got lights in your

house, but you never turn them on. And so you're

just walking around in the dark and you're stubbing

your toes and you're bumping your knee on the

door. And it's like, hey, turn the lights on.

And for a long time, the church has had the lights

off. We have not been living with this power.

We've been wasting it because we've just been

letting it go unused. That's not what the church

in Acts did. That's not what Jesus called his

followers to do. There is a reason that they

took over Rome, but we can't even take over our

county because we haven't been using the power.

And then there's those of us who we are in Christ,

but we still don't feel empowered because we're

trying to do things on our own. We're trying

to row our own boats. We're trying to focus on

the rule keeping and making sure we check every

box. And I'm not saying that checking the boxes

is a bad thing. I'm not saying that making sure

we follow the rules is bad, but what I'm saying

is it cannot be about our own effort. We need

to work with, we need to rely on the Spirit.

Because on our own, I don't know if you've ever

known this, but on your own, you're weak. On

my own, I'm weak. And I find that to be true

when I'm alone. Because when I'm alone, in a

situation, when I'm alone in a struggle, when

I'm alone in my fear and my worries, that's when

I feel the worst. But do you know the difference

when you're facing a trouble and you've got friends

around you? But now imagine if you could not

just have friends around you, but you could have

the ultimate power source within you. You'd never

have to be alone. And you never have to worry

about how am I going to make it through this?

You can simply say, God, I know you will bring

me through this. I don't have to rely on my own

strength. I can rely on God's. And I say all

that to say, for those of us who have committed

to following Jesus, the issue is not the absence

of power. It's there. It's just we don't use

it. Like I said, we leave the lights off and

we walk around in the dark and we hurt ourselves

and we waste the ability that we could have.

It's being on a sailboat, but having the sails

tied down instead of letting them out. And I

mean that individually and collectively. Like

I said, I think the church for far too long has

taken the Holy Spirit and we've either been afraid

of it or we've abused it. But either way, we

have not used the power for what it was made

for. And because of that, we have suffered. So

the question we ask this morning, if we are in

Christ, if we have given our lives to Jesus,

if we call ourselves Christians, the question

we ask then is how do we raise the sails? How

do we raise the sails so that we're not just

floating about, but that we are being pushed

by power? Another way to say that is how do we

position the sails so that we can be moved by

God? Well, the first way is we start with prayer.

In Luke 11, verse 13, Jesus, He's telling the

Luke 11:13

disciples, and He's talking to them, and He says,

how much more will the Heavenly Father give the

Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? And so we start

by asking. We just ask God. We ask him to show

his power. We ask him to show his might. God,

would you show up in this moment, in this situation?

Would you take control of my life? And you steer

the ship and you push the ship and not my power,

but yours. God, would you take over? Can you

imagine if we would just ask God to show his

power? And we then have to surrender. Maybe we

surrender first and then we pray. Either way,

surrender is a part of the equation. We take

our hands off. the paddle and we let the sail

out and we say, I'm not doing this on my own.

God, I'm going to work with you. I'm not going

to work against you. I'm going to work with you.

We surrender control. We deny ourselves so that

Jesus can take the lead, so that Jesus can take

control because God isn't going to force his

way in. God's not going to rip your hand off

the paddle. You have to surrender. So many times

I think we want to just say, God, if it's your

will, you'll do it. But we've got to say, God,

I'm not making my will. It's your will. I'm not

doing my thing. You do yours. We surrender. Because

truthfully, if we're filling our tanks with junk,

if we're trying to paddle by our own strength,

we cannot be surprised when our lives do not

look how they're supposed to. We can't be surprised

when the lives around us aren't being changed

because we haven't done anything. We can't be

surprised when we're not operating the way we're

made to when we are putting bad power sources

in our operating system. And because Christ is

our access point to the Spirit, because He is

the way we get to the Spirit, it's in our best

interest to stay connected to Him. There is no

way... We can have the power of God without being

connected to God. So it is in our best interest

to stay connected. In John 15, Jesus says, whoever

abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears

much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

He doesn't say, apart from me, you can't do all

that you were supposed to. He doesn't say, apart

from me. You won't meet your potential. He doesn't

say apart from me, you'll only be able to do

a little bit. He says apart from me, you can

do, say that again, nothing. Try again. Apart

from me, you can do nothing. No thing. Do I need

to define that for you? Y 'all got it. We got

it? Okay. So we have to place our trust in him.

We have to abide, be in him. If we want our lives

to bear the fruit that they're supposed to. And

that fruit. We sing the song in our house every

night. The love, joy, peace, patience. Can anybody

finish that one for me? Kindness, okay? Gentleness,

faithfulness, self -control. Somebody skipped

goodness, but that one's in there too. Y 'all

need to be good. Those fruit, the fruit of the

Spirit, that all comes from the Spirit's power.

It is only an access from... By accessing Christ,

we can access the Spirit. That is the only way

we can bear that kind of fruit. And I don't know

about you, but that kind of fruit sounds a lot

like Jesus. And if I want to look like Jesus

so that my life can proclaim His goodness, so

that my life can testify Him, I need the power.

I need the Spirit. Because of Christ, we have

access to a power that can make us look like

Jesus. like him. I'm an ugly dude. It is only

by the grace of God that I got a wife. I would

love, I would love to look like Jesus because

I don't know what he looked like physically,

but I wasn't saying I'm an ugly dude physically.

Some of y 'all may have amen that one, but I

lack patience and I lack gentleness and I lack

self -control. I don't always show kindness.

I'm not always as faithful as I should be. I'm

not good. But I have a hope because of the promise

from God that if I will rely on the Spirit's

power, one day I will look like Jesus. I will

be good and I will be kind and gentle and self

-controlled and patient. And Eliza is saying,

please hurry up, God. We'll look like Jesus if

we'll rely on his power. We'll live lives that

stay faithful to him when things get hard. We'll

live lives that love people who don't deserve

it, who make it hard to love. We will live lives

that have peace in the midst of the chaos. We

will live lives that resist temptation when it

tries to control us. We will have lives that

speak truth when it could cost us everything.

If we will rely on the Spirit's power. So this

morning, I know there's some of us that are,

we're living that kind of life that is still

trying to drive exhausted. We're still trying

to do our own thing, fueled by the junk of this

world instead of by the power of the Spirit of

God. And if you're in that boat, if you're still

trying to live that life where you're rowing

all on your own, I'm asking you to just let go.

Let go of trying to control your own destiny.

Let go of trying to control your own power source

and let God fill your sails with his power because

it will take you farther, faster, and way better

than you could ever do on your own. And so for

the follower of Jesus, I'm asking you to rely

on his power. And for those who haven't quite

given their lives to Christ, my invitation for

you is just like it was for Peter in Acts chapter

two. Come, turn your life away from this world.

Repent of your sins. Give up the ways of your

flesh. Be baptized. Murder the self and rise

to a life that lives and looks like Jesus. The

choice is yours. Are you going to operate on

your own power? Or are you going to choose to

live a life that's far more peaceful? far more

good, far more patient, far more kind? Are you

going to live a life that is easier to resist

temptation? Are you going to live a life that

can stay faithful? What life will you live? And

that is ultimately answered by what power source

you'll accept. And so the choice is ours. Are

we going to live powered by the Spirit of God

or are we going to keep tucking it back in a

cubby like it doesn't exist? Whatever you choose

to, or however you choose to respond, whatever

you need, wherever you're at this morning, we

invite you to respond to the invitation as we

stand and as we sing.