September 21, 2025 The Holy Spirit: Spirit of Power | Judges 3:7-11; 6:33-35; John 14:15-21

Today, we will reflect on Judges 3:7-11; 6:33-35; and John 14:15-21, The Holy Spirit: Spirit of Power. Over and over again, we read in the Bible of the Spirit of the Lord coming on people to empower them to save his people from their enemies after the Lord allowed their enemies to conquer them as part of his judgment. In John, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to prove the world wrong about their concepts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We’re given the Holy Spirit to stand strong in our world, to counter the teachings and beliefs in this world that lead to emptiness & brokenness and guide them to hope and strength through the Holy Spirit.

Transcript

Judges 3:7-11; 6:33-35; John 14:15-21 The Holy Spirit: Spirit of Power

Christianity has often been accused of being a religion for weaklings who need someone to lean on because they’re not strong enough. Harold Ballard, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1970s, traded away players who were Christians because he didn’t think they were tough enough, Ted Tuner, a media mogul said, “Christianity is a crutch for the weak, a religion for losers, while the philosopher Friedrich Nietzche believed that God is a psychological fabrication created to soothe distress, ease trauma, and provide companionship in the face of suffering. He also believed that believing in God is weakness.

Ballard, Turner, and Nietzsche do have one thing right, Christianity is for the weak. We see this over and over again in our family history, first Israel, and then later the church, keep falling and failing and need to be rescued, saved, and renewed time and again. There’s this great fallacy that we’re strong enough to make it through life on our own, that we have the strength within ourselves to make it through any and all hard times if we trust in ourselves and work hard enough. We even find this belief in the church when we claim that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle, a misunderstanding of 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” Paul’s talking about temptation here, not about suffering or hard times. God sometimes does give us more than we can handle to teach us to rely on him, to build our character, or to show his power through our weakness. 

Paul gets this in 1 Corinthians 1:27–29, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” We’re all weak, called to trust and lean on God as an example to the world of who God is. Paul had his own weakness that he asks Good to take away, but trust whether God takes it away or not, 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Our strength comes from God through the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher in the 1800s. He ached for a return of passion to the Christian life. He turned to the Old Testament, where he found people who seemed more real. They were saints and sinners, and there was nothing phony, fake, or artificial about them. God really worked in their lives, and they had a passion for him. R.C. Sproul writes, “Another professor once asked me, “How do you assess the strength of the church today?” I replied that it was becoming increasingly clear to me that many people in the church have a vibrant faith, believe the cardinal doctrines of Scripture, and so forth, but few of them see the Christian faith as a mission, as a profound concern in their lives. That was what Kierkegaard longed to see.”

God sees and hears us, and as we see in the judges Othniel and Gideon, the Lord sends his Spirit on his chosen to save his people. Othniel defeats the king of Aram and the people have peace for 40 years. Gideon defeats the Midianites and again, Israel has peace for 40 years. But Israel keeps drifting away from the Lord between judges. The story of the Old Testament shows us the Holy Spirit filling various people with his power for special tasks to protect and lead his people out of oppression and into freedom, or to call them back to the Lord. Isaiah 40:29–31 is a beautiful statement of the Holy Spirit’s commitment to us, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

One thing that fills me with hope is that God chooses people filled with doubt, people who are weak and broken, and he fills them with his Spirit of power to do his work. He simply calls us to respond in faith and he will work in us and through us through his Spirit. Jesus knows our weakness and how difficult it is for us to resist sin and temptation, how hard obedience can be, and instead of condemning us, he tells his followers, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” The Greek word that is translated as “advocate,” or “comforter” in the Kiing James version, is parakletos. The translators of the King James Version translated parakletos as “comforter” because at that time the English language was more closely connected to its Latin roots. In Latin, the word comfortis, comes from the prefix “com,” meaning “with” and the root word fortis, which means “strong,” so comfortis means “with strength.” 

Jesus is promising them the Holy Spirit, who is coming to strengthen them. As R.C Sproul writes, “The empowerment to live the life that Christ has called us to live comes to us by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, but the Spirit also fills us with its strength to resist sin and obey him. Paul sees the importance of the Spirit’s power in us to shape us in the image of Jesus in Ephesians 3:16–17 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” When we read through the book of Acts, we also see how the Holy Spirit fills people like the apostles with power in their words to convict people of their sin and lead them to Jesus, and the strength to carry on through hard times and stay on mission to share the good news of Jesus. The Holy Spirit continues to fill us with the strength needed to follow Jesus wherever that may end up. 

Many of you have heard of David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, who travelled to Africa in the mid-19th century in order to spread Christianity and end the slave trade. Livingstone’s explorations opened up Africa to the world, challenging the slave trade and paving the way for missionary efforts. Despite facing immense challenges, his faith and determination never wavered, inspired by a vision of Africa’s transformation. Livingstone didn’t see many people accept Jesus in his lifetime, his work deeply impacted Africa’s Christian landscape. His exploration efforts lead to many later missions, and his stand against slavery gathered international support for its abolition. There are so many more stories of how the Holy Spirit inspired the strength to go into impossible situations for Jesus, people like Jim Elliot and later his wife Elizabeth Elliot after he was killed on the mission field, Johanna Veenstra who dedicated her life to Nigeria even though the CRC looked to the China mission field over Africa. She opened up a mission there that still bears fruit today.

One person I’ve been talking to lately told me, “If God really exists, why doesn’t he just save everyone; why would an all-powerful God allow people the freedom to reject him?” In a world leaning more to authoritarianism, the idea of an all-powerful God who allows rejection and disobedience is hard to understand. Power is their god and weakness has no place in their thinking and the idea that God gives his Spirit to weak and broken people to bring new life and hope blows their minds. We’re simply called to trust Jesus’ call to make disciples and share the good news and the Holy Spirit will do the transformation part. I pray this takes away the fear of sharing your faith and inviting others to join here at Bethel because the Spirit takes the responsibility of transforming away from us.

That power and strength is available to us when we take our mission to share the good news, when disciple-making becomes key to our church identity, when our passion becomes to introduce the people in our lives and community to Jesus. Our role is to share who God is in our lives, to introduce them to the Bible; the Holy Spirit will us with the strength needed to resist temptation and to share the good news wherever God places us.