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Don Filcek, Solid Foundations; 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 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. We'll 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 is 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 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 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 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. It's 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? You 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?
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 Madawan 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 what Paul in the book of 1st Corinthians identifies as demons says when you worship idols you're worshiping demons. So you just call it what it is. You're gonna go and make a sacrifice to a demons 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 studied some things about him.
But they followed 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 and 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 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 a 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.
Is anybody kind of think that's a little bit dicey you can put his hands on them. The spirits 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 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 three thousand 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 and 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 I'm gonna 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 cuz 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 going to 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 the 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 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 that 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 there's 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 are 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, they're they're just they're 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? Um. 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 wack is That 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, do 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 the 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 showed 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 handkerchief aprons.
By the way, I keep calling him 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 have a rag tied around their mid.
They're there 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 and 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 going to 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 Sceva now I say a chief priest if your translation says high priest, but the fact 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 invoke 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. I need 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 stickers like 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 can't 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? Just maybe maybe we'll just give it a shot and test the waters and 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 that's the that's that that's it and so what we have is a picture of either you're in oh 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.
And 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's signing up for that ministry. Okay, because we'll have a sign up later for.
No, not really. They command the spirit by. Then 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. Um, so so sinister malicious, you know, and just this snarl. But do you see how do you feel? How do you feel if you're one of those seven?
Uh-oh. Uh-oh and and you see the demon what's interesting is the demon validates Jesus Christ. Do you see that in the text? The demon says I know Jesus. I'm glad you're not him and I've heard of Paul.
But I don't know who you are.
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 ug 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. Do 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 relationships 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 there 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 that 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. 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 gonna 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. 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.
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 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?
So 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? Or 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. Not some power to be conjured up. He is the Lord He is the king.
He's the Savior.
He is the Redeemer. Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is the one who is 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 Than 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.
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. Never 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 them stay miserable and sick and.
Push down.
Without hope and so he tries to get rid of Jesus and little does he know. You see the twist of irony and 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 this 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 this song or you can sit and reflect on the words Of this 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 in? 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 in the power Of the spirit that resides in us.
I pray this in you Jesus name.
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 and father that you would help us to engage in this battle that is going on.
Uh 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.