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.
Now, if you’re new to the faith, or not sure what this is, today you’re going to be able to peak in on one of the most amazing benefits of becoming a believer.
If you’re a Christ follower and are not sure what The Holy Spirit of God does, you too are in for an amazing new understanding that can change your life.
So, were in Acts, chapter 19 where we see our man Paul, still Pursuing The Call as he’s come to the city of Ephesus, he’s making good on an earlier promise to return to these believers there and continue his work.
Here he encounters 12 men who are identified as disciples. For some reason, Paul thinks to ask them about their conversion. They reveal to him that they are devout believers in God and they that they heard John the Baptist some 25 years ago and were following his teaching of repentance in preparation for the coming Messiah.
Now, this passage has led to a lot of confusion as Paul asks them if they had “received the Holy Spirit when they believed?” They said, they were not aware of such a thing.
Here’s a key that I want you to remember:
True salvation is only in Jesus and comes with a special blessing
(Vs. 1-7) 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.
So, these men had followed, basically God but in the sense and style as those who lived before Christ. They were what we would call Old Testament Saints. They believed in God, and when the prophet of God, John The Baptist came preaching repentance, they repented and continued to look for the Messiah to come, just as John told them to do. They simply were never aware that Jesus was the Messiah or Promised One that John preached about.
As soon as they heard that truth, they believed and received The Holy Spirit.
Now we have to understand that Acts is a transitional book. People were alive that were still following the Old Covenant not aware of the New. In every salvation experience in the New Testament recorded, the believer is given at that moment the presence of God’s Holy Spirit within them. As a matter of fact, Paul says if you don’t have the spirit, you’re not part of God’s family. Romans 8:9 And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
The Holy Spirit is many things to us, but also He’s a down-payment on what’s to come and so much more. Hear me, there is no “second blessing” or baptism of the Holy Spirit after salvation. There is one baptism of the Holy Spirit, it happens at salvation (Ephesians 4:3). Now, there are numerous infillings of the Spirit which occur moment by moment or when in great need.
These men were now baptized in Jesus’ name and the confusion was cleared up as they came out of the water with obvious effects of the Holy Spirit within them. Now that they believed, the Spirit of God was speaking through them and they were proclaiming God’s presence and power.
Here’s the key:
? Know that at salvation, God’s presence is birthed in you
So, Paul straightens out these men and begins his usual work of going to the closest synagogue to find eager minds to hear the truth.
(next point)
What we will see next, as we’ve seen in every city Paul comes to, is opposition. Now you might wonder, if the gospel, the Good News of Jesus death burial and resurrection is so good and God wants it to spread, why so much opposition? Why does God allow that?
Well, nothing worth while in the world is ever done without opposition. Think of the early explorers in our American History. Louis and Clark set out to explore vast unexplored areas in North American. They set out in 1804 and it took 2 years to reach the Pacific Ocean from Pittsburg, Penn. (Now if you’ve ever flown through Pittsburg, you’ll know why it took so long, the lines are terrible! lol)
When I was a kid, I saw a little bird hatching from an egg. I wanted to help this poor little creature break free but my mom told me not to do it. She said that the struggle the bird faces to emerge from the egg, with build enough strength to face its next challenge. By taking the struggle away, the bird would not be able to survive.
Some of you are wondering right now, “why am I facing my current situation?” While I can’t tell you what will happen in the future, however I can tell you that you are being prepared for it right now. See the struggle, the opposition in a new way.
Moving on in the text we see that. . .
True evangelism meets opposition but opposition brings strength
Evangelism is a big word that was actually transliterated, in other words, taken from Greek and Latin and made into an English word. For some it has come to mean to spread your particular views about something, and in eseence it can be used in that way. BUT what it literally means and refers to the sharing about what Christ has done, His death, burial and resurrection and the fact that you do not have to pay for your sins.
If you tell others about what Christ has done for you and for them, you will find some that listen, but you will find most that oppose you.
(Vs. 8-10) 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.
I really don’t know how to describe a man like Paul. I mean how many times do you have to get rejected, beat up, run off and ridiculed before you give up? You see Paul, before Christ, had it all. Respected, highly educated, sought after for counsel and was making a name for himself. In modern thought, we’d say he was living the Jerusalem dream, then he meets Jesus Christ. He throws all that lifestyle away and chooses this life of nomadic preaching, ridicule and hardship. What did he have to say about it? Well just before he dies, he says in Philippians chapter 3 that knowing Jesus is far and away better than anything else he ever had or encountered.
Paul gets booted once again from a synagogue and starts preaching at a teaching hall. We can derive from the text that he taught daily from about 11am to 4pm. This was the hottest part of the day and lecturers would not lecture at that time, (just in case the air conditioning was out).
The lecturer where Paul spoke was named Tyrannus, which actually means “the Tyrant!” I’m pretty sure this guy was still teaching when I was in the doctoral program, I had him for philosophy!
Here’s Paul preaching in the hot afternoon sun the message of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, not in a synagogue or a church, but a neutral place. So, from the opposition comes opportunity to not just the religious crowd, but for all people, and from that opportunity comes a strengthening of the gospel. See what verse 10 says.
This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
Amazing. Makes me wonder, what difficult place you’ve been put in. Is it for a reason? My hunch is yes!
Here’s the key:
? See opposition as a confirmation and a catalyst for God’s work
As we approach the middle portion of this chapter, we see some unordinary things. But I want you to notice that the first few verses and the encounter with the 12 men and what happens to 7 different men next have something in common – the powerful name of Jesus.
It was powerful enough to transform the lives of those 12 and now we’ll see that it’s powerful enough to heal any disease, but don’t try this without Jesus. It’s His kingdom, His authority and His glory to receive not yours!
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.
Now many were watching and some were thinking, “wow all we have too do is say some magic words and diseases and demons flee from people. I bet we can make a name for ourselves and I bet we can make a lot of money too!”
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.
OK, this is no trivial matter, but can I just say that I think it’s funny that these men literally got the pants beat off of them? I just wanted to say that!
They thought they could simply invoke Jesus’ name and get the same result. THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS WHEN IT’S INVOKED THROUGH A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS WITHIN THEM. The power of verses 1-7 show up here in verse 13.
No power of hell or evil spirit or force has dominion over you as a believer. The very place within who you are, that God resides in, is your spirit. You’re protected from demonic possession, but not from demonic oppression. You still must walk with God!
The scriptures continue. . .
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)
Here we see, true repentance. People believe in Jesus and turn away from their former beliefs and practices. Why, because faith in anything other than Jesus is an entrance to oppression from Satanic forces.
When we face spiritual opposition it’s important to know that while Satan hates you, he hates God far more. His attack on you is the closest he can get at God. We face him not in our power, might or strength, but in the powerful name of Jesus. Why? Because the unseen forces of our enemy recognize Jesus in you.
? Understand that demonic forces will recognize Jesus in you
The spiritual battles are real. Our enemy is real and while he is strong, strong enough to overpower 7 men, he is no match for our God.
• Do you know Jesus?
• Have you received the powerful indwelling of the Holy Spirit? (Have you accepted Christ).
• Do you need a physical or emotional healing?
• Do you strengthen from God?
I can promise you on the authority of God’s Word that God is here to act on your behalf!
TIME OF PRAYER AND COMMITMENT
