Who Are You
Acts 19:11-20
• There is an old story that I’ve heard, read, and told many times. It’s about a fellow named Bill who was always bragging about who he knew and how he was friends with many popular and powerful people. He said to his boss one day, "You name anyone you want to and I know them." His boss decided to challenge his claims. He said, "I guess you know Tom Cruise." Bill answered, "Sure, Tom and I are old friends." The boss asked him to prove it. So Bill and his boss flew to Hollywood and walked up to the door of Tom Cruise's house and knocked. Tom Cruise answered the door and shouted, "Bill, great to see you! You and your friend come on in." Although impressed, Bill's boss is still a little skeptical, so he asks Bill if he knows the president. "I sure do, let's fly to Washington to see him," replied Bill. They flew to Washington and were admitted into the White House. About that time President O’bama came walking down the hall and seeing Bill shouted, "Bill, what a surprise. I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come with me and we'll have a cup of coffee first." Bill's boss is very shaken, but still not totally convinced. As they left the White House he asked Bill if he knew the Pope. "Do I know the Pope? Sure! We have been friends for years. Why don't we go and see him." They flew to Rome and when they arrived thousands were packed into Vatican Square for mass. Bill said, "There are too many people here for the Pope to see me. You wait here. I know the guards. They will let me in and I'll come out on the balcony with Pope." Bill disappeared in the crowd and sure enough, in about half-an-hour the Pope walked out with Bill following behind him. When Bill finally got back to his boss he found the paramedics working with him. "What happened?" asked Bill. His boss said, "I was doing fine until you and the Pope walked out and the man next to me said, 'Who's that on the balcony with Bill?'"
• Our question for this message is the final question of our series. Each of these 5 questions have come directly from God’s word. (Recap the 1st four questions) This last question raises the bar for each of us. It is a personal question which speaks to the very core of who we are, what we want, where her heart is, and the legacy we will leave. We find this question in Acts 19. (READ vs 15) PRAY.
• Can you imagine what it would be like to be performing some kind of ministry, to be helping some person in need, or doing some other ‘spiritual work’ only to hear that statement & question directed at you in an evil voice, “I know Jesus, I even recognize the preacher, I know the deacons, I know your Sunday School teacher, but WHO ARE YOU?” This question comes in the middle of a very interesting event. Let’s read from verse 11.
• There are so many subjects & lessons from this text that chasing rabbits could be very easy. For instance, it would be easy to develop the subject of the “Dangers of Invoking the Name of Jesus.” Trying to do spiritual business in the name of Jesus can be hazardous to your health if you don’t possess his support and power. The man possessed by the demon was caused by the demon to (read text) – but the southern translation would be ‘jump on them & beat the dog out of them.’ They left naked & wounded.
• This, in itself, would be an interesting message, but let’s stay with the sobering question which the ‘evil spirit asked the boys. “Who are you?” or “What am I?” is a question that each of us asks ourselves when we are young. After we get more years behind us, not so much, which is a tragedy because the Bible tells us to ‘examine ourselves, test ourselves, and even KNOW ourselves.’ God’s word tells us it is vital that we ‘know ourselves’. We need to recognize ‘if we are straddling the fence between two opinions’, we need to know what we are doing here, we have to come to grips with “What we are actually doing with Jesus”, & we need to rightly know if we ‘love Jesus more than all this stuff.’ I offer a warning to each of us tonight: “IF we refuse to ask this difficult question of ourselves, we will be the ones in the dark because others ask the hard questions about YOU. It is sad to say, but many if not most, believe they know all about other people.
• Here are 3 reasons we need to know ‘self’;
1) Your Challengers know you – In this, I’m thinking of your opponents, your enemies, and even some of those who antagonize you. How do they know you? In a couple of ways. First, if they are really your opponent they will study you to know your tendencies. They will attempt to discover how you react & respond, what you will say, what you will do. They’ll watch, study, & learn all they can so they can use it against you. Yesterday was a big day in college football. Every one of those coaches & players had watch literally hundreds of hours of play by their opponents so they could know how to overcome & beat them. That is what an opponent does. He discovers everything he can about you – including your motivation, you impetus, & your drive.
• Another way your challengers know you is because they have met you before in battle. Back to football. When teams meet, they recognize each other because they have met before. In the Spiritual realm, it is obvious from our text that Satan gets to know us by the spiritual work we do. In other words, he knows his opposition, his enemies, and his challengers. (By the way, these are the enemies of all Christ followers) Never forget, Satan is not omniscient, but he’s smart. He studies those who oppose him because he wants to know a couple of things about them. He wants to know ‘who they are’ and ‘whose they are.’ May I simply say, “Whose you are” determines “Who you are.” In this story we see the impact of trying to do ‘good’ without the proper spiritual connection. (Some have said to me, “I don’t have any problem with Satan, he really never bothers me.” – The sad answer is, “He doesn’t bother people who are walking with him – in his direction).
• This story may also give us insight as to why some (many) people have abandoned the Lord’s ministry. When we attempt to do His work in OUR strength, things can get bad. You see, these guys (7 of them) were attempting to ‘good’ in the name of Jesus. Honestly, we don’t know why or what motivated them, but they launched into the spiritual world of spiritual warfare. The problem was the prince of evil knew they were a fraud & that they were ill-equipped for this battle. As true as it is that “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” it is also true that “Greater is he who is in the world that YOU ARE.” You go it alone against evil and you will be defeated every time. Why? I’ve said it many times, “Satan knows your weakness and he knows when you are weakest” and at that place in your life and that time in your life – he’ll show up.
• How does this speak to people leaving ministry? Think about it; seven young men whose dad was a priest decided after watching the ministry of the Apostle Paul (and all the good he was doing & how people were responding to him) that they wanted to step into doing what he was doing. After all, if this man called Paul (whose real name was Saul) could do what he was doing, then why couldn’t they? Herein lays a huge problem. Many seem to believe that they can do what anyone else can do – and quite likely do it better. If someone decides to take on a spiritual task without having Christ & the Spirit of God in their lives, they are taking on a Spiritual enemy in physical strength. And that has tragic consequences because your challenger knows you.
2) Your Companions know you – Verse 17 tells us that this incident became known by everyone. People know you, your friends, your family, and even those who don’t know you. Quite likely, some were not surprised.
• Consider just a couple of practical thoughts. First, people closest to you know you the best – and most authentically. The old saying is, “You can all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.” How true. The ones who are close to you really have a clear knowledge of who you are. They have heard you speak in times of frustration, fear, and fun. They have watched you react in times of burden and blessing. In fact, many of your closest friends can tell others how you will respond to a given situation. They know what it is that motivates you. Those people generally can speak to your character, your commitment, & your Christianity very accurately because, even though people will say “No one knows what goes on in a person’s hear”, the Bible says, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” In other words, people can listen to what you say & discover what is in your heart.
• I remember a Pastor with whom I enjoyed working. His name was Tim. Bro. Tim invited me, as a worship minister, to have a part on the administrative staff team. I had asked for one thing administrative thing to do, and Tim gave me one. The deal was, this was huge. And in my role I knew that my job was to make the decisions as best as I could that Bro. Tim would make. What I did was increase my time around him. Not official ‘staff meeting’ type of time, but informal time. This gave me time to just hear him talk, figure out how he felt on things – and that made my job easier.
• People are watching you. Do you know ‘who you are?’ Do you know how people perceive you? If one of your closest friends were to be ask about you within your hearing, would their words be what you would want? And would those words include Jesus, God, the Bible, His work, and His mission? They know.
3) Christ knows you – Human nature puts us this great wall around us. Most of us have been hurt so bad & want to be thought of so good that we have a defense mechanism which is state of the art. How does this play out in the spiritual arena? Let me illustrate & we’ll be through: Several years ago Vann & I were visiting and came upon a man standing in his yard. We stop & I began to share Christ with Him. He knew every answer to every question & was quite comfortable with his life. As we walked away I turned to Vann & said something like, “Well, he knew the answers, didn’t he.” Vann’s response was, “Yes, & He’s as lost as a dog.” His answers were his defense. Knowing yourself is more than knowing answers to questions, it is about know our living Lord. He knows who you are & whose you are. So does your friends. So does your enemies. What do they know?
