The Real Energy Crisis

The Real Energy Crisis
John R. Petrilli

Hybrid cars. Wind-generated power. Ethanol. Vegetable oil fuel. Fossil fuels. Offshore drilling. Alternative fuel sources. Nuclear power. Green technologies. Solar-powered generators.

An all-time high demand for affordable power combined with an insufficient supply has driven prices at the pump into the ozone layer. As a result, gas in Ireland has skyrocketed to over sixteen dollars per gallon. Americans who have historically paid far less per gallon (thanks to huge price breaks due to huge volumes of consumption) are now paying record-high prices for the “black gold” that drives their economy as well as their vehicles. Rising star countries like India and China are having an earth-shaking impact on the world’s natural energy resources via industrial booming and millions of first-time automobile owners. As the East catches up to and bypasses the West, the entire world is scrambling to come up with emergency solutions to what has become an energy crisis of global proportions. Will mankind’s ingenuity enable him to successfully meet the high-tech challenges and make the significant personal sacrifices necessary to change over from oil to other means of power generation? At this point it appears only time will tell.

This having been said, there’s another energy crisis that’s also global in scope and dwarfs the former in terms of impact. This energy crisis looms over the Church of Jesus Christ. What started out as a tiny first century movement known originally as “The Way”, quickly blossomed into a faith that was like the proverbial “shot heard ‘round the world”. Thanks to the commercial advantages of a global Roman transportation network and the international communications capability made possible by the lingua franca of the Greek language, news about the risen Messiah traveled fast and far (Col. 1:23 ; Rom. 1:8 ; 1 Thess. 1:8). The church’s rapid expansion during it’s first one-hundred years carried over into the following five centuries, reaching as far south as Africa (c. A.D. 125), as far west as Britain (Gaul, c. A.D. 250), as far north as Germany (c. A.D. 311) and as far east as China (c. A.D. 635 ). According to research done by longtime missions expert J. Herbert Kane, “By the end of the fifth century Christianity had, with varying degrees of success, become established in all parts of the empire and even beyond, from the Sahara Desert in the south to Hadrian’s Wall in the north, and from India in the east to Spain in the west” (A Global View Of Christian Missions).

Which brings us to the question at hand, and a crucial question it is. What was the secret behind the early church’s effectiveness? It can’t be found in their financial resources, for they were poorly endowed at best, and struggling for survival at worst (1 Cor. 1:26 ; 16:1 ; Acts 1:27-29 ; Rom. 15:26 ; James 2:2-7 ; Heb. 10:32-34). Neither can their success be attributed to public popularity or currying political favor, for, by the end of the first century they’d become the most despised group of humanity on the planet (Matt. 10:17-20 ; Acts. 8:1 ; 11:26 ; 26:11 ; 1 Pet. 4:12-19 ; 5:13 ; Rev. 2:8-11). Nor can their effectiveness be traced back to clever methodologies, for the modern church growth movement with all its ‘expertise’ was still 2,000 down the road. In summary, it wasn’t the church’s possessions, popularity, power, or procedural approach that gave it such phenomenal success. So from whence came this head-spinning success?

J. B. Phillips explains it this way: “

W. Graham Scroggie says of the book of Acts, “Christ is the theme, the church is the means, and THE SPIRIT IS THE POWER” [caps mine] (Believer’s Bible Commentary).

Respected authority on evangelism Michael Green states, “If we are to believe the Christians themselves it was not merely for these (aforementioned) reasons that the gospel spread so fast and so widely. The main theme of Acts is the work of the Holy Spirit, and that He is the supreme agent in the Christian mission. Yet this is the very factor which is most often forgotten in assessing conversion in the early church. The Christians were convinced that the Spirit of Jesus had come into their midst and indwelt their very personalities in order to equip them for evangelism ... Every initiative recorded in the book of Acts is the initiative of the Spirit of God.”

In a recent survey the New Testament I discovered the instrumental role that the Holy Spirit plays in energizing the Church to carry out Her mission. I also deduced that this facet of church growth is largely being overlooked, and the result is an energy shortage at the spiritual level. The Holy Spirit is the exclusive source of power for the individual Christian as well as the corporate church. From start to finish, it is the energy that He alone supplies that initiates, motivates, and culminates the work of evangelism and church growth. I submit the following four Biblical instances where we can clearly see this principle borne out.


I. THE CHURCH’S ENERGY CRISIS WILL BE SOLVED AS WE RELY ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
TO ENERGIZE THE REGENERATION OF THE HUMAN HEART. Eph. 2:1-6 ; Tit. 3:5



II. THE CHURCH’S ENERGY CRISIS WILL BE SOLVED AS WE ALLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT
TO ANIMATE OUR DAILY WALK WITH GOD. Eph. 3:14-21 ; Gal. 5:16-26



III. THE CHURCH’S ENERGY CRISIS WILL BE SOLVED AS WE ALLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT
TO FUEL OUR WITNESS FOR CHRIST. Acts 1:4,5,8 ; 2:4, 36-38, 47 ; 4:8-20, 23-33



IV. THE CHURCH’S ENERGY CRISIS WILL BE SOLVED AS WE ALLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT
TO EMPOWER OUR PRAYER LIFE. James 5:16 ; Eph. 6:18



In the words of one commentator, “For twenty centuries the Lord has not been without loyal witnesses, compelled by the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of Jesus with all the world. Are we among this number?”