What A Mighty God We Serve! Series

What a Mighty God We Serve!

The Book of Acts - Part 68

Acts 19:8-20

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - Revised July 21, 2018

BACKGROUND:

*Remember that here in Acts 19, Paul was on his third missionary journey. His team was reaching many people in the city of Ephesus. They saw the Hand of God at work in miraculous ways, and this reminds us that our God is the Mighty God! Let's get started by reading Acts 19:8-20.

INTRODUCTION:

*What a mighty God we serve! He is the "Almighty God." This is the "El Shaddai" name for God that is found 48 times in the Old Testament. (Variations of this "Almighty God" name are also found 9 times in the New Testament.)

The "El" part of this name speaks of the Lord's strength. "Shaddai" tells us that the Lord is "most powerful." And the root word for "Shaddai" carries the ideas of burly power with the ability to devastate and destroy His enemies. Our God is "The Mighty God!"

*The LORD first revealed this name to Abraham in Genesis 17:1-2, and there the New Century Version says:

1. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Obey me and do what is right.

2. I will make an agreement between us, and I will make you the ancestor of many people.”

*Rick Stacy explained, "Let me fill you in a little about Abraham. Here was a man of great faith. He worshiped the one God – El. This he did in a world that had as many gods as they had tent pegs. And they lived in tents.

*God made a covenant with Abraham. A holy promise that he would bless Abraham with a son and from that son would come so very much. Great numbers of children would come. Great nations would be built. Great Kings would be born and rule. But most of all there would be one through whom all the families of the world would be blessed and saved. From Abraham would come the great Messiah and the King of Kings.

*Now Abraham was 99 years old, and God promised him that he would have more children than the sand on the beach or stars in the universe. That was a little tough to accept at face value, not just for Abraham but also for Sarah. In fact, when Sarah heard this news she laughed! (1)

*But our God is the Mighty God! And in Genesis 18:14, He made it clear that nothing is too hard for Him! Tonight's Scripture helps us understand just how mighty He is.

1. First our Mighty God can drive out every disease.

*Verses 8-12 confirm this great truth for us, where Paul:

8. . . went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.

9. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

10. And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

11. Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul,

12. so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

[1] Wow! -- Those were amazing miracles, but notice it wasn't Paul's power. It was God's power.

*In vs. 11, "GOD worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul." Any victories we will ever have must come from God Himself. They will never come through our own virtue or abilities. As Jesus said in John 15:5, "Without Me you can do nothing."

*But all things are possible with God. He has just as much power today as He ever did. And what power He has! As vs. 12 says, "The diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them."

*John Phillips explained: "Such was the effect of the handkerchiefs and aprons Paul wore as he worked to make tents. No need to go to a doctor, no need to enter the hospital. Sicknesses of all kinds were simply healed. Coughs and cancer, angina, arthritis and appendicitis, toothaches and tummy aches, lupus and leprosy, mumps and measles, dropsy, diphtheria, or deliriums -- it made no difference. The diseases departed and that was that." (2)

[2] We can absolutely depend on God's power, and we must. It must be His power. But it also is His prerogative.

*It's God's exclusive right to choose how He will act in any given situation. Notice that vs. 11 says God worked "unusual" or "special" miracles by the hands of Paul. Why does he call them "special," "unusual," or "extraordinary miracles?"