"Supernatural Ministry"
(Text: Acts 19)
What did you get when you got saved?
Paul comes to Ephesus and finds some disciples of John’s..
They had repented and tried to live the Christian life
.
They had heard the Baptist’s message.
A message of repentance.
They had heard and believed and returned home.
Paul comes to Ephesus and hears about this group of believers.
He goes to meet them and immediately recognizes something was missing.
Repentance is good.. But what did you get when you believed?
There is more to this experience than simply repentance, salvation..
The eradication of sin.
`There is the living presence of Christ.
There is the experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Paul asks, "Have you received the Holy Spirit?"
They answered.. "We haven’t even heard about this Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
This is important.. You see Paul expected every believer to be baptized in the Holy Spirit
This was the natural order..
You were saved.. Baptized.. Baptized in the Spirit.
Every Christian in the New Testament Church was a Pentecostal.
Some say it ended.. I Corinthians 13:8.. No! That speaks of heaven.
What happened?
They lost it.
We have been satisfied with less.
People say if I could be half as good.. And they are satisfied with less and less.
The church at Ephesus needed a supernatural experience.
We must not be satisfied with less. We need a supernatural experience.
What would Paul say if he visited our church?
If he looked into our faces?
Would he ask, "Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?"
Paul Was There To Claim The City For Christ..
Ephesus was a great city. The treasure city of Asia Minor.
In the center of the city stood a great temple of Artemis.
This was a city that was caught up in the supernatural, in superstition, in sorcery and in Idol worship!
This city knew the power of the evil arts.
Look at verse 19, you see that city was caught up in spells, evil writings and the black arts.
9Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
It was to this evil place that Paul came to claim it for Christ.
He was confronted by many evil powers but that was okay.
You see, he came in the name of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit!
Paul Came Preaching The Power Of The Holy Spirit.. (V. 11-12)
11And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 12So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
Read those verses, then underline "special."
That says something to us.
It tells that God did extraordinary things through Paul’s Ministry but it also implies that there were many "ordinary" miracles, too.
Even the clothes he wore, the rags he used to wipe his brow, the towels with which he wiped his hands were agents that brought forth miracles.
Listen to what happened in Ephesus, to what took place through the ministry of Paul. The Bible says the sick were healed, diseases left, people were made whole, evil spirit were put to flight.
Why did this happen?
Were the clothes special?
Did Paul’s perspiration have a special anointing?
No! See Paul’s miracles were accomplished in the name of Jesus.
Paul didn’t move in his own ability or in his own strength. It is clear that Paul moved in the power of the Holy Spirit.
It was the power of God that brought forth these miracles.
When Paul came to a city to preach he didn’t expect any less than the power of God to be manifested. Paul came expecting miracles.
I wonder what would happen next Sunday, if we came expecting miracles?
A Glimpse Into The Supernatural World..
There is another world that exist all around us..
The city of Ephesus knew the reality of the supernatural world.
The people lived on the midst of evil forces at work in the lives of sorcerers, seers and seekers of evil power.
Their lives were touched by these forces and power.
Listen to me, the "spirit world" is real.
It exist all around us. Most are blind to it.
There is an example in the Old Testament, in 2 Kings 6:17,
Elisha and his servant find themselves in a city surrounded by the army of the Assyria. Elisha’s servant is afraid and wants to flee. Elisha prays that the servant’s eyes will be opened. Suddenly, the servant can see chariots of fire and angelic army that stands between them and the army of their enemy. He sees that there is another world, a spiritual world that exists all around us.
Paul realized that he was at war with the forces, the spiritual powers, that inhabit that spiritual realm.
He describes that war in Ephesians 6:11-12.
2For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Paul was prepared and he was anointed to face the spiritual enemy and to win.
We had better wake up and realize that we are in a battle. We battle against spiritual powers. You and I must be prepared to fight. You and I must have the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, if we expect to win the battle.
An Example that is both terrifying and funny.. (V. 13-16)
There was some that had practiced the black arts that saw the power of Paul in dealing with the powers of darkness. They thought they could imitate Paul without the power.
These seven sons of Sceva, went to cast out a demon in the name of this Jesus that Paul preached. The only problem was that they had no power. They went in their own strength and this magical name. The demon told them, "Jesus, I know and Paul I know but who are you?" Then the demon attack them, beat them up and chased them down the street. We laugh.
We laugh, but the Ephesians didn’t, look at v. 17-19.
7And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds. 19Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
The Bible says, they heard and a great fear fell upon them and the name of Christ was magnified and many believed.
So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
Read verse 20, underline it, it tells us that this is the result of supernatural ministry.
This was a work of the Holy Spirit. It was a supernatural move of God through the power of the Holy Spirit..
This Is A Picture Of Supernatural Ministry..
We all want the power of God in our lives.
We want to have a supernatural ministry that will allow us to impact the world but it but it is not easy.
You must pay a price. This is serious business. We are at war and souls are at stake.
We need to be Pentecostal. We need to be full of the Holy Spirit and Power.
This is not a work of man, it isn’t something that can be worked up or emotionally generated.
This is God’s work
. If you are going to change the world, you need the right stuff.
You need the anointing and the overflowing power of the Holy Spirit.
You need to be filled and to stay full if you are going to confront a powerful enemy and the win the confrontation.
Illustration: There was this older man who would come to church and go to the altars and cry out to God, "Fill me again, Lord." He would get blessed and get all excited and then after a few weeks he would be back in the world.. Over and over he came back.. "Fill me again, O Lord." Finally, one little Grandma got tired of it.. When He Cried our, "fill me again, O’ Lord." She yelled out, "Don’t do it Lord.. He leaks." Well we all leak.
To stay full, to be truly Pentecostal, we must follow the three Ps
We must be Prayed up
. We need to be a people of prayer.
We can’t be satisfied with a charismatic genuflection at the altars and think that we are going to have any impact on the spiritual realm.
We need to pray until we touch God, until we come into His presence and receive what He has for us.
We must be Powered up.
We need to hunger and thirst after the presence of God.
We need to return to the altars and seek to immerse ourselves in the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit.
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives and our heart that we might be a people led and empowered by God.
Jesus told His disciples to go to Jerusalem and to wait until they had received power.
They did and the Holy Spirit came upon them in an unique and wonderful way that anointed them to begin to change the world.
We need that same power!
We Must be Praised up. Paul, in Ephesians 5:16, says,
"Don’t be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit
