15. Sermon on the Mount Secrets - Be Salt and Exercise Jesus' Power Part 3

We are busy with a series on the Sermon on the Mount and this message is a continuation from the previous ones. Kindly please first read the previous related messages.

Where did Jesus get His power to do all the miracles while He was on earth? It was not because He was God. Had He used His divine power while He was on earth, what was the point of Him setting an example to us because He had to be in every way like us (Hebrews 2:14-18)? No, He got it by spending His nights in prayer, hearing from the Father about how to deal with the issues awaiting Him. Then during the day, He did exactly as He was told. He said in John 5:19, “‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’”

Where did Jesus see what His father was doing? Can it be that He saw it while He was in heaven? I’m convinced that He saw His Father in the Spirit while He was praying. God then illustrated what Jesus was supposed to do during His ministry the following day. He probably would have heard something like: “Jesus, today you will meet a blind man. You must spit in the sand, make mud and put it on his eyes. It is imperative that you tell him to go and wash his face in the Pool of Siloam.” Had Jesus have done it in a different way, it probably would not have worked.

He also said in John 5:30, “‘By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.’” Where did Jesus hear? He heard through prayer during the night.

How did Jesus pray? We find the ultimate example in Luke 22:44: “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” This prayer was in Gethsemane and certainly was the ultimate of prayers, but I believe it was typical of all His prayers: earnest and heartfelt. Also, think of His answer when His disciples asked Him why they couldn't heal the boy possessed by demons in Mark 9: 14-29. He said: “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.” When did Jesus have time to fast about it, since He had obviously already done it by the time He met the boy? His father had prepared Him long before the time while He sought His face in prayer.

Jesus could do nothing without relying on His father. How about us? “‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing’” (John 15:5). As Jesus needed His Father, so we need Him. As we remain in Him and He in us, what fruit will we bear? The fruit He bore, the same power He exercised, the same difference He made. “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]” (James 5:16b Amplified Bible). That is how we should pray.

Some issues can be resolved only through prayer. We couldn’t physically do much about the falling aeroplanes. Concerning certain other issues, though, James said in his epistle that faith without works is dead. Jesus did not only pray against the deception of the Pharisees and teachers of the law; He also confronted them, exposing Himself to persecution and the risk of being killed. These confrontations eventually lead to His death. If we want to be like Jesus we must also be courageous and confront the wrongs in life. This means we have to risk unpopularity, even within the church.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16, 17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” And in 2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

I have lately become increasingly aware of the words “correct” and “rebuke” in the above passages. How much of these are still being done within the church? If good works demand holiness, then people, who are being prepared for good works, need teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. This will bring them in line with the Lord who is the author of good works. “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

Correcting and rebuking is not nice or easy. We fear rejection, but if we don’t rebuke and correct, people tend to compromise. Many people live in sin and are not confronted any more. This result is that the church is weakened because of unrighteousness.

The fear of persecution and rejection causes the church to live in compromise with the world. She became acceptable to the world and even to the enemy, since she does not make people aware of sin and holiness anymore, and is therefore not a threat to anyone. The Holy Spirit wants to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8) and needs the church to work with Him.

The same applies if the church does not correct or rebuke the government. Without correction, the government tends to be led by the carnal nature and evil forces. Our battle against sin and corruption must be intense and focused.

As a family, we love watching movies and have often found great spiritual lessons in them. One day we were watching an action movie involving spies. My wife commented, “Despite the danger and against all odds, these heroes just don’t give up.” How many of us resist evil passionately, against all odds, until we accomplish what we set out to do? The general approach seems to be “I’ll do something as long as it doesn’t affect me personally.”

We need always to work with the Lord under His direction. If we rebuke because the Lord told us to and we do it the way He directs us, it will bear authority and manifest change. The Lord wants us to be channels of His power. If we are available, He is more than willing to teach us how to be different, how to swim against the streams of popularity and accepted behaviour, even of popular Christian beliefs. He would love to raise a salt army that would make a sick earth whole through his power. To be continued

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