Acts 19:1-20 Snap Shots of Power

We've been going through the book of Acts here and what I like to do is kind of set the stage read the read the Text and read the passage every week before we come to worship so that we kind of get our minds

Moving towards God at the beginning of our time together We've been going through the book of Acts and we've really been given a backstage pass to the

God is starting his church show We're getting a chance to see how God started the church in the very beginning back in the book of Acts and The fact of the matter is as we get further along in the book.

We can begin to lose sight of the main point of the book Really we get further away from Jerusalem.

So as you're as you're reading the book of Acts the church starts in Jerusalem That's where Jesus was crucified.

That's where he was raised again. That's where he ascended. Those are the core the core events of our faith and So as we as we expand out and we get out into the fringes of where the gospel is spreading and where the church is

Spreading we can begin to lose that So last week we saw the Apostle Paul went back to Jerusalem Basically kind of like on vacation.

He went to Jerusalem He went to Antioch and the church in Greece and Asia Minor kept on growing out there at the fringes of the extent of the knowledge of Christ Out at the extent of where the gospel is spread it continues to grow

Paul was back there But if I can summarize the main point of the book of Acts as we come to worship this morning

It is that God is planting his church in the world He is the solid foundation of the church.

He is the one who is building his church. It's not about the Apostles It's not about those who are coming to faith in Christ.

It's not about those who are working in the church It is about God starting his church

God planting it and growing it Jesus said that he would build his church on the confession of the

Apostles and the gates of hell would not stand against them So this morning we're going to get a chance to look at some snapshots of a city where the gates of hell had taken a stand

Quite literally in the town of Ephesus where we're going to see the entire events unfold in our text this morning we're going to see a stronghold of Satan a little little stronghold of satanic worship of Demonic influence in this town.

We're going to see where the gates of hell have taken their stand and we're going to see that They cannot stand at all against the power of God So as we get a chance to read this text and then sing praises to God Let's reflect on the

Almighty God who really is not even challenged by the forces of darkness

There is no opposition that causes him to even sweat

No concerns for God open your Bibles, please to Acts chapter 19 We'll be looking at 1 through 20 and that's on page 794 in the

Bible in the seat back in front of you So if you choose to use that Bible 794 and if you don't own a

Bible we want you to take the Bible that is in the seat back in front of you Take that home with you. We want everybody to own a Bible But follow along acts 19 will read the first 20 verses 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've not even heard that there's a Holy Spirit and he said into what then were you baptized?

They said into John's baptism and Paul said John baptized with a 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 laid his hands on them the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying

There were about 12 men in all and he entered the synagogue and for three months both 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 and God was doing Extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even the 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 exorcist 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 spirits 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 and mastered all of them and overpowered them so they fled out of the 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 50 ,000 pieces of silver

So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily

Let's pray Father I thank you for the victory first and foremost that we have in Jesus Christ that he has come and defeated the powers of darkness on our behalf

Powers that would overwhelm us and destroy us we are slaves to sin and we are slaves to our own flesh and and We just get rolled over time and time again without the power without your power in our lives

But father in you there is great power There is the authority over all things in you is freedom from darkness

And so as we get an opportunity to come before your throne and worship you I ask that we would we would tap into you as the power source as the the one who provides the power for daily living for righteous living for walking with you for having an impact on the world around us and Father that you would help us to have a healthy balance regarding this battle this war that is waging all around us

That we can become so quick to push aside and ignore and act like it doesn't exist

I ask that you would help us to engage our world on a spiritual level With the warfare and the tools that the

Holy Spirit has given us to wage battle. I pray this in Jesus name Amen today

Amen thanks a lot to the praise and hopefully you were able to come before the throne of God and worship this morning

Were you able to do that thinking about God turning your attention towards him? That's the point of singing.

We don't just sing songs that recast by the way. This is into my notes This is a freebie, but we don't we don't sing songs just because that's what you do when you get together as a church but hopefully that when you sing that is an overflow of Gratitude and of the blessings that God has given you and I know that you some of you have had rough weeks, right?

Some of you've had a rough week But how many of you can say that even in your darkest and toughest weeks you have some blessings?

You have some good things to be thankful for for to God So hopefully the the singing in those songs flow out of that now as we get started

I want to encourage you you can get up use the restrooms. There's coffee. There's donuts There's some more juice back there and feel free to get up during the message

You're not going to distract me unless you get up and shout at me that might that might you know Stop me for a second.

But other than that just make yourself comfortable Now as we get into this text There's some groundwork that I need to lay at the beginning for us to understand and that is first and foremost that we live in a scientific

Culture, would you agree with that? America tends towards a scientific materialistic maybe might be a better way to say it a

Naturalistic worldview where we tend to deal in the the realm of stuff

Not immaterial, but material stuff and that's where our common everyday life occurs.

Would you agree with that? It's kind of say that's where we live So that what happens is the idea of spiritual warfare or the idea or the concept that we're in a spiritual war

Can be very far from our minds, right? Right, you could live a whole week. You could live a whole month

You could potentially live a year without the thought crossing your mind that you're in a spiritual war here in America Would you say that's true?

There's the potential for us to live that way think about this when we're sick We go to the doctor when our car breaks down.

We take it to a mechanic When we need more income we apply for a credit card

Don't do that, but but there are aren't there isn't it? Right? There are solutions and we tend to turn towards material solutions first Now how many of you praise

God that there's mechanics people who are I mean, I I do because I can't fix my own car

Okay. I have a hard time changing a light bulb. You can ask my wife. I've literally broken changing light bulbs I've broken them in the socket and it's turned into like an hour project anybody else done that Thank you.

This is so encouraging. I'm not the only one. Okay, so Okay. Yeah, I can get I can get into a mess just trying to change the simple light bulb but we have solutions for everyday everyday problems that face us and Although I'm grateful that God has given us so many practical solutions

To the everyday problems. I recommend that we take advantage of those There's a reality that in those solutions often we become less

Dependent upon God and we become blind to the reality that there is a spiritual reality that is running just beneath the surface of all of our day in and day out like I'm not real quick to say that when that light bulb broke off in the socket.

It was a demon Okay, you know, do you know what I'm saying? But could it have been? It could be

I mean, I just you know, do we but do we think that way do we think that there could be forces? kind of working in the background to just kind of Cause frustration or to do things.

I mean Anybody think I'm weird now because I said that because I mean that's what we're gonna look at in the text Is that there is there is a spiritual dynamic to things that are going on behind the scenes of the material world that we live in Do you agree with that?

Okay, maybe not every time that some project goes bad or there's a car accident a demon was to blame but there is a reality to this and the reason

I'm bringing us up to begin with is how Different the Ephesian culture that we're going to be dealing with in our text is from where we live.

There's a huge gulf between Matawan and Ephesus in our thinking not necessarily in the reality of the way that things are but in the way that we think about things

They were a culture where the first solution to a problem was to go to a practice a practitioner of the dark arts

Where wizards and witches were real business not just on the silver screen But that was really the way that it was and that's where you would go first and if a relationship was broken, where are you going to go you're going to go to The the temple of Artemis or you're going to go to one of the temples of one of the gods one of these pagan gods

And you're going to offer sacrifices and you're going to do all kinds of crazy strange bizarre Pagan rituals to try to accomplish or get where you want to go in life, or you need that promotion what are you gonna do you're gonna go make a sacrifice to a

What Paul in the book of first Corinthians identifies as demons says when you worship idols you're worshipping demons

So you just call it what it is You're gonna go and make a sacrifice to a demon to try to get ahead in life in that culture

And that's that's their first thought so when the church enters this context the church is expanding and growing in the book of Acts and it enters and it begins to infiltrate some of these types of areas

God in our text is going to show the importance how important and superior the

Holy Spirit is over the forces of darkness How powerful is his spirit?

So in verse 1 we see Paul coming to Ephesus. He's been on vacay over in Jerusalem and Antioch and Luke doesn't give him any transition time.

It's like he just arrives in Ephesus and boom. He's just back into it He encounters 12 disciples who have had some understanding about Jesus Christ But have not been baptized after putting their faith in Christ So they haven't been water baptized

But we're also going to see that they do not have the spirit Which means that if we if we just look at the entirety of Scripture at what

Scripture has to say About when the spirit comes on a person it is when they believe and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ So we are looking different than Apollos.

Remember last week Apollos had not been baptized Was he a believer? Yes, it said that the spirit was alive in him.

These 12 are not yet there. They know some things about Jesus They've studied some things about him, but they follow

John primarily John the baptizer. They are not in yet. They've been kind of Interested have any of you ever met anybody like that who is interested in spiritual things who has kind of a hunger to know more

But isn't quite in yet in there They just need they're lacking something that needs to be brought into the situation.

Namely the Holy Spirit that faith that comes And then the spirit comes upon them.

So that's what we're dealing with it here It's similar to Apollos, but they have a misunderstanding about baptism They followed

John the baptizer thinking that baptism is something that should be done before a person Puts their faith and trust in Christ, which was what the baptism of John was we talked about that last week some of you weren't here the baptism of John was simply saying be baptized in preparation for Giving your life to Christ and the baptism of Jesus Christ is one that comes

After you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, are you getting that? so disciples of John were baptized before the message was given to them but here in our context and Throughout the

New Testament baptism is seen to be the commanded baptism for the church is what comes after you believe

So they're missing something more though. And so to liken them to a policy It's important that I think that we see what we'd looked at last week in conjunction with this

Apollos a believer not baptized Needs to be baptized by water, but these guys are not believers

They need to be baptized by water and the Spirit as well So in verse 4 Paul explains that John the baptizer was a great guy

But he wasn't looking for followers for himself. Look at what verse 4 Actually says and Paul said

John baptized with the baptism of repentance telling the people to follow him and to become his disciples

Is that what the text says? No, it says telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him

That is Jesus who did John the what was John the Baptist ministry all about?

Jesus the one who is to come after him the one he said I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals

John understood his place his proper place in the kingdom. And he said I'm just a forerunner. I'm just a herald

I'm just the guy who runs ahead of the king and the king is coming and I'm the guy who runs ahead and hooks

Announcing to all the towns prepare because the king is coming That's all he did.

And so these guys are followers of John and they need to be become followers of the one

John followed Jesus So once they grasped that they missed the main point of the ministry of John the

Baptist They decided to be baptized a second time this time in the name of Jesus to show that they were all in with him so that shows

To show what occurs next so to show that the ministry that happens in Ephesus is tied with Paul's ministry

God uses Paul's hands to confer the Holy Spirit Now that's not something we see regularly in Scripture Does anybody kind of think that's a little bit dicey?

He's gonna put his hands on them. The Spirit's gonna come upon them. They believe and are baptized by the Holy Spirit in Ephesus this was valuable because Spiritual experiences like tongues and Alleged prophecies were respected.

They were not rare How many of you know they're rare today? Like to have somebody just get up and speak in a foreign language that they don't understand

They've never studied or to have them prophesy stand up and prophesy thus sayeth the Lord. That's not common today

But in Ephesus that was common that was routine So tying these manifestations of the

Spirit to the ministry of Paul gave him some level of local Credibility it gave the

Ephesians a sense of like oh we get this this guy has power Associated with him.

So there is an element of street cred that comes with the speaking in tongues and this prophecy Do you see that he gets some credibility in the eyes of the

Ephesians, but that's not all that's going on here Because also we see speaking in tongues often associated with the

Spirit claiming a major new territory So as the Spirit expands in Jerusalem, the very first followers 120 gathered in the upper room

The Spirit comes on them they speak in tongues and 3 ,000 are added to that number that day

Okay, so big movement of God would you say on Pentecost huge deal speaking in tongues occurs there?

Then we see the first time that the gospel expands out to Gentiles very first time that non -jewish

By birth not ethnically Jewish people put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ in the house of Cornelius.

What do we see happen there? Speaking in tongues. Okay another major Bubble burst in the sense of the spread of the gospel.

It's expanding. It's expanding and it's taking on new territory So what's going on here in Ephesus? most scholars see this is the expansion of the church and actually a

Removal of the hub of the Gentile Church from Antioch to Ephesus We're gonna see Ephesus is going to become the central place of Gentile Christianity for centuries big movement

We see speaking in tongues. Okay, so we see that as major movements of God to validate

It is a how many of you know that if somebody speaks in tongues and they prophesy and they say and things Come to pass that they prophesy you're paying attention to them

Is there some validation something you can see about their faith?

Yeah, you can see something there, right? I mean, you know if I've never studied Russian and I'd present the gospel in eloquent

Russian That's that's kind of that's kind of a little out there Okay, you with me you can see something is reality in my life.

That is beyond just what you see I mean, I can't how many you know, somebody can tell you that they're a Christian somebody can tell you

They're a follower of Christ, but you just have to take their word for it Right. So there's some stamp.

There's a validation in this process of speaking in tongues that happens here So we're gonna look at four snapshots here of the power of God and snapshot one is this

The power of God shown in the spirit in dwelling these twelve Believers and giving miraculous ability of speaking foreign languages and giving prophecies that the seal of the spirit is there in Ephesus Okay demonstrated in power.

You see that Okay, everybody. Okay with snapshot one Verses eight and nine are snapshot two

And that is the miraculous spread of the word now since Paul received credibility through these twelve men

He speaks for three months in the synagogue Okay in the Jewish meeting place now remember that last week we saw

Paul went to the synagogue and he went to Ephesus and He was coming through and he left

Aquila and Priscilla there and the synagogue requested and said, would you please stay here? We want to hear more about these teachings and what did

Paul say to him? anybody remember Said no. I'm on my way to Jerusalem I've got plans and I need to get on a ship or else the shipping lanes are gonna close for the winter

I'm on my way back there to give a report and to complete a vow But you know what if God wills

I will return to you and then we saw I had a PowerPoint presentation of the 1400 mile Journey that Paul took last week and boom.

We're back in Ephesus I mean that was pretty quick, right and he's traveled all the way by foot all the way from current -day

Israel basically the area of Lebanon all the way across the country of Turkey to the

West By foot or by by horse or whatever. We don't really know He's traveled all that distance in just a couple verses in between here and he's coming back into Ephesus and apparently

God willed it Cuz he's back in Ephesus. He said if the Lord wills I'll return to you. Oh great that worked out because here

I am So God willed it he's there and he is Going to hang out there, but things

What is his message here he's returned his reasoning and he's persuading them boldly about the kingdom of God the text tells us

Whenever you get confused anybody find some confusion in their mind about this phrase kingdom of God.

Like what is the kingdom? Everybody feel pretty good about that. Okay some I know that sometimes the more that you read it in Scripture Sometimes it becomes a little bit fuzzy in our mind

Like what is the kingdom and even the more scholarship you read the more fuzzy it becomes because people love to muddy words

And they love to confuse things So is the kingdom of God something that's in the future is the kingdom of God something now?

The kingdom of God like the earthly ministry of Jesus. What is the kingdom? I think that the easy solution to understanding the kingdom is something is meant by the phrase kingdom.

That is very simple kingdoms are defined by a

King Right all kingdoms have a king and the king is the central point of the word kingdom

So when we talk about the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven There is someone we're supposed to be thinking about in our minds when we think kingdom of God Who is that?

Jesus he is the king and he is the king that our our focus is to be on who is the king of the kingdom

Of God Jesus Christ and then you can begin to think what kind of activities do people who are in a kingdom do for the king

They pledge their loyalty to the king they defend the honor of the king

They serve the king and they receive from the king so you can begin to see

I mean you can work out a theology Of the kingdom of God just by simply realizing the center point of a king of the kingdom of God Is that there is a king and his name is

Jesus just start from there So that's the message that Paul is proclaiming in Ephesus. There is a king

There is a king and you should be in the kingdom of God You should be following that King and you can see how that message rolls out

Things turn all too familiar. However, he's proclaiming the kingdom of God and what happens often at the synagogue

What have we seen as a pattern in the synagogue after synagogue after synagogue? He ends up getting

The boot right? It's gonna get punted out of the synagogue things turn hostile towards Paul Some there became stubborn the text tells us they persisted in their unbelief

They take it a step further and literally begin to speak evil of the way Christianity was known as the way during that time kind of an interesting title in and of itself the way to salvation

The way to forgiveness the way to eternal life It was the way and they begin to speak evil of it in the synagogue

So rather than hang around and argue with the hostile crowd Paul withdraws and begins holding dialogue and what the text translates

ESV translates at Hall It's literally the word school so you can do it either way It is the hall or the school of Tyrannus It's interesting to note that Paul was not into public argument.

He wasn't eager to Argue with the people in the synagogue, so he's not gonna get kicked out of the synagogue this time

He's gonna voluntarily leave like he did in Corinth he would proclaim the truth and Dialogue with people as long as they were respectful and open -minded

But when they turned hostile he had no problem moving on. I Think that speaks to something in our lives as well

And I'll let you draw your own conclusions because you know the people that you interact with and engage with every day

But how many of you have experienced hostility towards your faith? How many of you think that arguing with that hostility helps?

Does it? Maybe sometimes just giving them a card with your name and number on it and saying if you ever

Find yourself in a pinch. Give me a call Otherwise, I'm not gonna debate this with you. There's no need for us to argue, right?

Move on but care for them obviously do you does that mean that you don't love them? Does that mean that Paul hated and despised the synagogue and was like, oh, you know, you guys just burned

Was that was that his attitude towards them? Not at all but how many of you know that you're a limited finite being with a limited number of Days given to you and you can't spend it all with one person, right?

I mean you could spend your entire life just trying to Argue with a hostile person

When there are others who are eager to hear and need to hear and others who are gonna be hostile to you're leaving them out

Of the equation when you're spending time with that one who's hostile. So I mean you get the you get the picture here so he

Takes off and heads up heads out and meets at this Hall of Tyrannus where he's speaking and proclaiming

I don't doubt for a second that Paul was friendly to those who were civil to him So this isn't primarily about not hanging out with those who don't believe it's not it's not their unbelief that Caused him to move on.

Are you hearing what I'm saying? It was their hostility that moved him on But I mean man if somebody will listen and hear and interact with you and talk with you and they might have they might have

Questions and they might put up a you know, some pretty tough questions to you, right? That doesn't mean that they're hostile towards you

So you got to work through that and figure that out in your relationships If you need help, I'd love to talk with you further about that But so for two years the

Gospels proclaimed in a culturally acceptable forum there at the Hall of Tyrannus for dialogue and They're they're working there their success success as such

In the Hall of Tyrannus that the residents of all of Asia get a chance to hear the Word of the Lord people are traveling

I'm coming in to Ephesus are hearing going out to the villages and all of this region is reached basically by the

Word of the Lord It spread throughout the region and the and in that Roman district Asia became an actual stronghold for the

Christian faith Are you ready for this? We're talking about this occurrence somewhere between 50 and 55 ad

There will be known churches effective witness in that area of Asia Minor until 1929

There will be effective growing healthy churches until the Turks in battle and war actually fight the

Greeks and kick them out in 1929 are you hearing me? That's the how solid the church was there became a bastion a center stronghold for the

Christian faith What kind of a town are we talking about here one that's steeped in?

Spiritism one that is like maybe one of the last places we would want to go on the face of the planet at that time a very uncomfortable place and that's going to be the place where Christianity is going to take the deepest roots in a place that is the darkest

That's the power of God that we're talking about in our text. Do you see that? pretty awesome Snapshot three here is the presence of extraordinary miracles that accompanied the ministry of Paul Now one thing is

I was studying this is and help me see if you agree with me on this Do you think that the adjective extraordinary before the word miracles is a bit redundant and Is that registering with you?

Extraordinary miracles like like there's ordinary miracles and then there's extraordinary miracles like like just take those two words and bring them apart

Extraordinary beyond the ordinary routine miracles that you encounter every day. You know, these were extraordinary

Miracles now, dr. Luke who is the author of this? He was a medical doctor precise. He was a historian.

He's doing his research I mean, you know, he he's looking at this from a medical standpoint. He's looking at this from a scientific standpoint

He's looking at this and he's kind of going these were some crazy miracles that happened in Ephesus If I'm being honest here, you know, and I'd like to be honest with you guys

These miracles are hard for me They are Okay, there's there a little bit weird miracles anybody registering like did you already read the text you heard me read it?

You you know what? I'm talking about here. So you part the Red Sea. Sure. Why not? That's cool Okay, or Walk on water

Jesus. That's awesome. That's cool. I'm down with that Stop a funeral procession and raise the dead cool

Amazing love to be there and see that Okay, but bless some hankies

Some sweat rags that Paul wore around his head or around his waist or whatever or one that he used to wipe off the sweat

While he's making tents bless that and send it to the sick and watch them get healed Anybody a little creeped out by that Okay, am

I the only one or is that nervous laughter or is that are you just laughing at me? It's a little weird is that weird to you raise your hand if that's a little weird to you

I mean, I just okay. It just seems and I think part of the weirdness for me What makes it feel a little bit?

What is? The this kind of stuff is abused by televangelists still today

Right have any of you ever watched the TV and had them try to sell you a hanky Has that raise your hand if you've seen that you've seen it.

Okay, it creeps me out a little bit Okay, and I will bless this hanky and by the way, the more money you spend for the hanky the more blessing you're gonna get

Right, you get that you get that picture So I think that's what weirds me out about it a little bit

But what's helped me to come to terms with this miracle is That at the beginning of verse 11 what it says here and God was doing extraordinary miracles

God is the one doing this. You see what do we see on TV? We see somebody blessing their hanky and mailing it to you

This is about God I don't believe Paul Stood there in the Hall of Tyrannus and came up with hatched a plot and a plan to bless hankies and give them out to People I think it was just like oh my goodness

Somebody encountered this sweat rag and they were healed. Whoa. Check this out. God is doing extraordinary miracles in our presence

Wasn't some plot or plan of Paul to bless people with his sweat rags Happened and They were all and just the way

Luke writes and calls him extraordinary miracles shows you that he thought it was weird He was amazed by it.

He was like, whoa, this is crazy stuff going on here I mean the spirit came on us in power and some amazing stuff happened there the handkerchiefs aprons, by the way

I keep calling them sweat rags because technically that's what they were That's what the words that are used here one was a sweat rag that a laborer somebody in a guild or in a trade would

It would would have a rag tied around their mid there. They're the middle of them here around their waist

To wipe sweat off while they're working because I mean, you know They weren't air conditioners back then and you'd be working and making you know

Working with leather and cutting and doing all that stuff and sewing stuff together making tents and then there'd be another rag that he would use to wipe off the sweat off of his face and Those are the words that are used there

The handkerchief is the one for the face and then the apron is the one around the the waist there so that's why

I keep talking about those and those are the things that were being shipped around and healing people The reason these miracles are so important is the proliferation of magic in the town of Ephesus so that we're gonna get a chance to contrast what's going on through Paul with Satan's counterfeits in verses 13 through 16 and That that passage stands in contrast to the power of God in his work through Paul So we see these seven

Jewish exorcists who are identified as sons of the of a chief priest named

Stephen Oh, I say chief priest if your translation says high priest, but the fact that the that the the word before that is a

High a high priest Let you know that you're talking about a chief priest not just because there's only one high priest

So the word can be translated high or chief and so it's not there is no you can look back through historical documents

There was never a high the highest priest named Sceva We have a good record of who the high priest was down through the decades and there wasn't one

But this is we're talking about a high priest the text says that and that's so it's a chief

Priest this guy Sceva It's fair to assume that in that dark place there was an abundance of demonized people and they're literally making offerings to demons

Daily going out to the temples and things like that. So demons are having a heyday in this town

So as ironic as this is these Jews these seven sons of Sceva invoked the name of Jesus and Paul while Attempting to cast out demons.

Now. Why would they do that? Is that curious to anybody? Like why would Jews be invoking the name of Jesus? Well, they're just looking for power.

They're looking for authority they're looking for a way to get the Money that they need and they're they're going around casting out demons for profit

And so they're saying well, whatever whatever power is working whatever we're finding We'll invoke any name that might give us the edge in casting out demons.

Do you see that? So that's what they're doing and they're they're literally going to invoke The name of Jesus I would like to say this they thought they'd give

Jesus a try Okay, they're just gonna give it a try to see how this will work out for them

But it's an important point that scripture never tells us to give

Jesus a try Now I occasionally see a bumper sticker around,

Kalamazoo, and I hope I don't offend anybody well, if you have it on your car tear it off, but There's a bumper sticker that says try

Jesus and if you ever seen that bumper sticker, it's really funny because yesterday I was driving to the park and ride on Oakland and just about as I was getting off the highway

I'd already written a sermon and there went past me a car try Jesus on the bumper sticker I was like, oh,

God knew that I was gonna illustrate that that I could just tell you I saw one just yesterday Try Jesus on a bumper sticker

We do well to follow the advice of the very wise Yoda on this one Do or do not there is no try.

Okay, that's what he says and and honestly Jesus offers forgiveness and salvation

To those who are willing to pledge plunge headlong into the waters of his grace

He's not he's not offering salvation to those who would just just touch the toe and just kind of test it and just see

It's those who are all in Plunging in headlong with abandon saying

I am totally if there is if there is There is no other salvation.

I need you Jesus. I need only you you're the one That's what he's looking for. He's not looking for people to just kind of give it a shot.

See how it goes That's not what saving faith is about Do you hear what I'm talking about?

It's not just Maybe maybe we'll just give it a shot and test the waters and to keep my options open

There is salvation in no other name Under heaven by which means we may be saved it is

Christ alone That's that's the that's that that's it. And so what we have is a picture of either you're in Or you're not in you're not partly in you're not just some in you're not just in up to your waist

You are drowning in the mercy of Christ if you're in You're all in above you beneath you beside you and in you

You hear me? Oh If there's anybody here who has not

Plunged headlong into the grace of Jesus Christ into that forgiveness that is offered

Please come and talk with me afterwards If you even have a just an ounce of interest in what it is that I'm talking about Please come and talk with me afterwards to understand and to be fully in in Christ is a free life

As we're gonna see as we move on So we see it didn't work out very well trying

Jesus for these men They enter the home of a demon -possessed man

Okay, anybody creeped out yet? Okay, just just a thought of going into a house like, you know, there's somebody who's demon -possessed in there

You're gonna go in check things out Nobody else is uncomfortable with that yet, but just that first part.

Okay. I'm not I'm not all there yet. You know, it's not like Okay, that's cool Nobody signing up for that ministry

Okay, because we'll have a sign up later for No, not really. They command the Spirit by The Jesus whom

Paul proclaims now notice that just the fact of the way that they talk about Jesus shows that they're just giving him a try We don't know him.

We don't have any personal relationship, but that Jesus though, you know The one that Paul talks about a lot. That's the

Jesus that we're gonna talk to this demon about Okay, so by that by the power of that Jesus Come out

They're saying to this demon and the demon -possessed guy turns on them

Gazing his eyes roll back in his head sinister voice malicious smile. I added all that just for dramatic effect

It's not in the text and then in a snarly voice. He says I know Jesus and I know

Paul, but who are you? Is that good my word, okay So so sinister malicious, you know, and just this snarl and but do you see how do you feel?

How do you feel if you're one of those seven? Oh Oh And and you see the demon what's interesting is the demon validates

Jesus Christ. Do you see that in the text? But even says I know Jesus. I'm glad you're not him and I've heard of Paul No clue who you are who do you and in essence who do you think you are?

Because you're no Jesus and you're no Paul Yeah Not gonna go.

Well The octagon the cage drops. Okay, and we've got UFC on our hands here

Okay, and it's an all -out ugg fest here and the the demon takes them out superhuman strength one demon

Singular in the text one demon Owns these seven men.

It says he mastered and overpowered them Which is a technical a technical way of saying beat the tar out of them.

Okay, that's what we've got going on here He is whooping up on them. They flee the house with bruises

Without their clothes and without any dignity Okay, you seeing how that goes down?

One commentary added this this is what a PhD could buy you is this kind of significant insight into the scripture

Okay, I want you to hear this go ahead and get your pens ready to write this down. Okay, cuz this is just key insight

He says their nakedness accentuates their failure

Write it down key PhD you can do it. Okay and go get your

PhD and you can come up with those kinds of insights their nakedness Accentuates their failure really you think so Like do you think that they thought hey, let's go try to cast out a demon and maybe we'll end up naked by the end of it

Probably not so much. Okay, this is in their culture awkward

So do you get the contrast that we're looking at in these two stories? It's with intention that these two parts these two snapshots are side -by -side in the text on the one hand

We have Paul's sweat cloth that that one would discard at the end of the day and the demons can't stand before it

Because of the power of God not because Paul's awesome because of the power of God Blessing that ministry in that early church and then we've got seven count them seven

Jewish exorcists That are streaking home totally humiliated Can't even face one demon and these sweat cloths from Paul are circulating and healing the sick and casting out many demons

Get the picture power of God power of the demons. I mean power of those

Not associated with Christ and power of those associated with Christ. You see the difference there

You see what power is accessible for those who are in Christ Where does true power reside?

True power resides in a relationship with Jesus Christ Not in knowing about Christ not in speaking the name of Christ But in loving

Christ in believing in Christ in being loved by Christ in Trusting Jesus and being forgiven by Jesus.

That is where true power resides In relationship with Jesus and I'm not talking about just a temporary power.

That's what I'm talking about true power I'm gonna know that there's a temporary power that these Jews actually experienced in casting out demons there.

They wouldn't be in the trade They wouldn't have walked in that house if they didn't have the expectation that they might be able to do it And maybe they did sometimes right?

Sometimes they were successful and they cast demons out of people and they're not just being naive and dumb This is probably not the first time that they've done this and they're just trying it out

There was some success. I'm not talking about temporary power to cast out demons I'm talking about the real power of a transformed life the real power of an eternal life

Where we have the power to overcome sin and overcome the enemy in the name of Jesus Christ and that comes through relationship with him as you can imagine word spreads quickly about the failure of these naked exorcists and Fear falls upon all of them in that community and in that area and the name of Jesus was extolled

The text tells us that is another way of saying Jesus is made glorious in this community and Not just in any community, but in a community of magicians and it's done through his amazing power over the darkness

You see why these snapshots are valuable to us where we live the power of God over the forces of darkness

What became of the demon -possessed dude look in the text, what do you think? It doesn't say does it? I like to think that they send him a hanky

Okay, that's just that's where I'm at in this I don't know that's a little hypothetical But I can't imagine they just left him out there hanging with a demon in him

They probably sent him a hanky and it all worked out verse Verses 18 through 19 highlight how

Ephesus was totally steeped in dark and evil practice So we're gonna see how deep did this thing run how really bad was

Ephesus? Those who came to faith were exposing their former practices to the light

There's value in just that I just take that in for a moment Exposing the deeds of darkness to the light is the first step in freedom from our sin actually getting that out and speaking it and to have somebody that we trust to be able to share some of those things with is

What accountability really is to bring our crud? To the text of Scripture and to the light and let

God's Word shine light in that and to have other people hear that What if you know that sin loses its power when you have other people that are helping you with it?

Have any of you experienced that in your life? I know I've experienced that in my life to have even Zach and Rob to be

Holding me accountable and for me to be holding them accountable and we meet every week and we talk through things and try to keep

Short leashes on our sin. Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, we don't we don't try to have pet sins, but but we try to keep short accounts

You get what I'm saying here? That wasn't That sounded really bad, um

But having that accountability having relationship and exposing our darkness because did you know we all have it

You know we look we can we can make our faces shine really nice and we can look really happy and we can have crud going on on The inside and if we hold that and harbor that that will eat us up a lot

Getting that stuff out and letting the light shine on it is part of the process of healing

So steeped in darkness though, they were confessing they were bringing these deeds to the light They were literally bringing their books of incantation secret magical spells

Magic paraphernalia, you know their witches that they're I mean their brooms that they would play Quidditch on and stuff

And they're bringing all that stuff and they're burning it in a huge bonfire at the town center

And you can imagine that this what kind of impact would this have in the community? Like I mean people would see this and by the size of the the value of these books somebody there must have started recording

God, you know what how much this stuff cost? Let's start recording it and they start to record how much value all of these books that are burned and it amounts to 50 ,000 pieces of silver

Now if the word pieces implies the word drachma Which is most likely the Greek coin that would have been used in this time that would have been made out of silver

So we kind of know what the coin most likely was if it is indeed a drachma then today in today's terms

We're talking about seven to nine million dollars worth of books

You know, that's a big deal Can you that gives you a flavor for what Ephesus was like in regards to the spiritual realm?

seven to nine million dollars worth of satanic demonic literature books

Spells incantations scrolls all of that stuff It's a lot that's nothing compared to JK Rowling's 1 billion net worth right now

But I certain certain that this this bonfire probably set Hogwarts library back a little bit.

I'm Sorry, I just a little too much culture there. Um Verse 29 serves as a status update on the spread of the church

Okay The church posts a Facebook page and here's the status update and the

Word of the Lord the good news Continued to increase and prevail mightily status update

God's plan is marching forward His church is victorious even in places that could literally be called a stronghold of satanic practices and the church is expanding and taking deep root there as I said earlier in our modern mindset.

We can easily forget that there is a battle raging all around us But I also think it's possible for some of us to slide it in too much interest in the realm of spiritual things in the dark spiritual things

Let me explain by reading a portion of first John and kind of think about particularly the end

I'm going to read a larger chunk But it's really the last part that I just want to set some context But first John 4 1 through 4 you can write that down if you're taking notes

Feel free to turn there. You don't have to but first John 4 1 through 4 says this beloved Do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God For many false prophets have gone out into the world but this

By this, you know the Spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not

Confess Jesus is not from God This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already

Little children you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is

Greater than he who is in the world who is in you as a follower of Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit is in you

Who is in the world? Satan the evil one our enemy

Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world in the context of the book of Acts We see believers who have the indwelling power of the

Spirit we saw that highlighted in this text as one of the snapshots When we believe in Jesus his spirit comes to reside in us guiding directing empowering our lives

We have overcome evil Praise God that we have overcome evil not based on our righteousness, but based on the

Holy Spirit that resides within us We need not fear any spiritual attack because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world

Now some misunderstandings here. Satan is not some equal to God who is opposed

To him in some sense of true power Satan is a created being that literally we see in the text of Scripture has to come to God to even ask permission

To give some sores to Job See that here to go back in the Old Testament and read the story of Job Satan has to come and ask permission to even give somebody some sores on their body

Okay He's not some equal with God like a lot of a lot of our culture wants to portray him as the equal who is the enemy

So I'm asking for us to strike a balance in our thinking about this life And this is where the application comes in.

It's possible to spend too much time considering our fallen at enemy We can elevate the evil one by attributing to him more credit than he is due

But equally we can live in error by assuming that we do not currently live in a battle for the souls of humanity

I'm talking about balance then We can easily let the things of this earth sap our vision for the deeper spiritual purposes for which

God has saved us and I would dare say that the most of us relate to the side of the battle that Is giving too much to the material and not attention to The spiritual world that is behind that material world

Would you agree with me on that? but there may be some here who have Spent quite a bit of time and quite a bit of focus on the spiritual realm and and we can't do you know what?

I'm saying when I say we can get overboard on that where we can we can become almost enamored with the

Enemy and with the dark side of things and become like the expert in demonology and all that stuff

Do you know what I'm talking about? But I dare say that our error is more often the other direction here in America.

Would you agree? That's that's what I'm encouraging you towards is more balance and to enter the fray in the power of the one who has saved you

Pray for those around you wage war with your own sinful tendencies But do this only from the position of one who is in relationship to Jesus Christ Don't be like the seven sons of Sceva who got left without their skivvies

Had to get all kinds of alliteration in there Jesus isn't some power to be conjured up when

Difficulties face us and I fear that some of us use in that way, right try Jesus and bad things happen okay, fire up a shot to Jesus because you know and Not that not that you shouldn't pray to God when difficulties come but it's a matter of relationship.

Are you just a how many have a friend who comes to you when they Need something

But they're not around when you need something right Don't be like that with Christ.

Are you with him in the good times? are you just there knocking on the door when bad things hit and Looking at him and just just saying well, you know,

I don't really have a relationship with you But I could really use some help right now It's not some power to be conjured up.

He is the Lord He is the king He is the Savior He is the

Redeemer Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is the one who was slain for the sins of the world

He is the conqueror of sin and death. He reigns at the right hand of God Almighty He loves you deeply and he is coming back for those who trust in him.

That's Jesus. That's our King the head of this kingdom Would you trust in him today?

living life from the vantage point of salvation through Jesus keeps me in the center of the balance

Because there is indeed a battle raging but in the power of Christ we are more than conquerors

Greater is he that is in you Follower of Jesus Christ and he who is in the world

We're about to celebrate the willing sacrifice of Jesus Christ He willingly gave up his life for us on the cross and without the cross

We are firmly in the clutches of the enemy. He owns us without the cross But Jesus came to exercise victory over Satan Even so much so that he tricked the devil at his own game.

He came and lived a sinless life He healed the sick he cast out evil spirits, but in the end

Satan entered Judas and moved Judas to betray Jesus But in the greatest cosmic twist of irony the act by which

Satan Sought to snuff out the Son of God was the very act that sealed the devil's doom

You ever thought about it that way? The very act by which Satan moved in Judas to try to accomplish his ends and get rid of this

Son of God Get him off the scene man. He's messing my stuff up. He's kicking my demons out of people.

He's healing people I like to see some stay miserable and sick and push down without hope

Until he tries to get rid of Jesus in little does he know you see the twist of irony this huge huge cosmic twist at the cross

That Satan was defeated by the act by which he tried to get rid of the Son of God God reconciled himself to mankind through the cross and vindicated his son through resurrection and That is what we remember when we come to this table this morning

So celebrate the victory as you come to the table celebrate the power of God over the forces of darkness

Celebrate that he has given you new life And if you are all in with Christ if you've taken that plunge then by all means at any time during the song come and take communion if you haven't taken that plunge you can take this as an opportunity to come and talk with me during the song or You can sit and reflect on the words of the song as Dave comes and plays

But I'd encourage you to seriously consider all of us to consider the power of God. Are we living? With an understanding of the victory that has been bought for us at the cross.

Let's pray Father I thank you so much for the power that you give to your followers

Father that you have indeed defeated the evil one and even though we are here in this spiritual battle. The outcome is sure you are victorious

Jesus has been defeated and he's thrashing and he's trying to take as many with him as he can

Father I pray that you would impress on our hearts the importance you have left us here for a reason

To be your light to be your salt to have an impact on the culture around us

And so father I ask that you would Work in us mightily and with your power

To reach out with boldness to those around us to pray for one another to lift one another up and to do battle with sin

That we see in our lives and the power of the spirit that resides in us. I pray this in Jesus name Again for the chance that we have to gather together in your name to worship you to consider the cross of Christ.

Father, I ask that as we go throughout this week, we would not become overburdened with the spiritual things that are going on around us, but ultimately we give those over to you.

Father, that you would help us to engage in this battle that is going on, to genuinely pray for one another, to lift one another up, and again, to do battle with sin as we see it in our own hearts and in our own lives.

Father, I thank you for the victory that we have in Jesus Christ, and I ask that we would live in that this week, in Jesus' name, amen.