Pursuing The Call Part 7 From Spiritual Confusion To Super-Natural Power Series

ACTS

Pursuing The Call – Part 7

Dr. Tom Bartlett

August 11, 2019

Acts 19:1-20

From Spiritual Confusion to Super-natural Power

Acts 19:1-20 (ESV)

OUTLINE

From Spiritual Confusion to Super-natural Power

Acts 19:1-20 (ESV)

True salvation is only in Jesus and comes with a special blessing

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all. (Vs. 1-7)

? Know that at salvation, God’s presence is birthed in you

True evangelism meets opposition but opposition brings strength

And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

(Vs. 8-10)

? See opposition as a confirmation and a catalyst for God’s work

True kingdom work must be through believers who go in Jesus’ name

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. (Vs. 11-20)

? Understand that demonic forces will recognize Jesus in you

MANUSCRIPT

Good morning Steele Creek Church! Welcome to our new time! I hope you all enjoyed the 15 minuets extra this morning!

All campuses are unified in service times now and it will give us access to some cross-campus things we were not able to have before. And by the way, we are not moving to a video-messages. I guess you’re stuck with me to do the live preaching!

We’re charting our way through a study of the book of Acts. Dates, places, events, key people and circumstances. If you’ve not been with us, you might wonder since these things happened two thousand years ago, “how does that apply to today?” That’s a great question, thanks for asking it!

Acts applies to us today as we see both the progression of this new entity at that time called the church, with all the opposition and nuances of becoming, as well as how God, time and again stepped in and did the most amazing things.

You see, Acts is not just descriptive, telling us what happened, but in many cases, it is prescriptive in showing us how to deal with real-life issues.

Now there is no such things as a “New Testament Church” that we are to use as our model, each one was different, but we can learn from them all. We face the same issues they faced.

In the church, as far back as I can remember as a follower of Christ, there has been this discussion/issue/debate over the understanding of The Holy Spirit of God. As a matter of fact, confusion about this goes back to these early days too.