Paul's Ministry: A Blueprint for Authentic Faith

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

We're going to go ahead and get our Bibles out, and I'd like

you to turn with me, if you can, to Acts, chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

We're going to pick up where we left off a couple weeks ago.

We, we did not study in Acts last week.

We had a special guest with us, and we're thankful for that.

But we are back in Acts, chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And if you don't remember, two weeks ago, we saw Paul's ministry

there in the book of eph or not the book of Ephesus, the city

of Ephesus, the book of Acts, he's there in Ephesus.

And we left off in verse number 10.

And this is after some individuals have hardened their hearts,

specifically the Jews, the Jews of that city harden their heart

against the preaching of the Gospel from Paul.

And so he transitioned to preaching to the Gentiles.

And it says in verse 10 that he continued doing this in the space

of two years.

And so we see that in, in the relative speaking, Paul really spent

some time here in Ephesus, and, and he had this time for a specific

purpose, and that was to teach and preach the truth.

And it says there that he dwelt there in Asia until all those

heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

And so we know that there was a huge emphasis in Paul's ministry

and teaching people who Jesus is and what he has done for them.

And that should be the emphasis in, in all of our churches

this, this series Acts, Authentic Church through scripture,

has been teaching us how we should be doing church.

And you know, there's a lot of people's perception of church depending

on where they grew up, depending on where they have been,

depending on what type of church they attended, if they attended

church at all.

So for a lot of people, when you mention the word church, they

come up with a preconceived idea about what it's all about.

Sometimes if you say the word church, people think about a building,

they think about the actual facility that people are meeting.

If you say to some people church, they're thinking about religion

and traditional acts that we have to follow.

But when we look at scripture, we see really who is the church.

The church is the individuals that are saved, born again, that

are growing and teaching and serving.

That's the church.

And so authentic church is really creating disciples.

It's telling people about the truth of Jesus Christ and then seeing

them grow.

But what makes a church authentic is that we are preaching

the truth.

The authenticity of a church is preaching Jesus not, not, not

being a counterfeit.

Now there are a lot of people today that are meeting in a place

called church or, or they're calling themselves a religion or

a faith, but they are counterfeit.

And we're going to see in this passage here this evening that there

were some individuals who were walking the same way that Paul was

walking.

They were saying similar things to what Paul was saying, but

they were fake because they did not have a relationship with

Christ.

And so what makes us authentic is a relationship with Christ.

What makes us an authentic church is that we're preaching Jesus.

What, what, what makes us authentic Christians is that we know

Jesus in a personal way.

Not that we do a work, not that we meet in a place, not that

we claim a name, but that we are walking with Jesus in a personal

relationship.

That's why I'm very careful to use the word religion.

I know what we mean by hey, I'm a religious person.

But I'm very careful to talk to somebody like my faith is the

same as any other religion in this world.

We have to be careful with that because religion is this essentially

I need to do to get something where our, our faith is not due to

get it's believe in something that has already been done for us.

And so we need to be very cautious when we talk about that

word religion.

Because again, if we use that word religion in this world, what's

everyone to lump us into?

Well, they're going to say it's just another religion like every

other religion.

So let's get here and let's look at this main text and you'll

understand where I'm going with this.

Verse number 11 says this.

And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul.

So, so in his ministry here in Ephesus, we see that God was working

through Paul to perform what we see here.

As it says special miracles.

In, in the Greek, that word special also means unique or unusual.

And so before we think that this passage of scripture is describing

how every church should be, we need to understand that this is unusual

to Paul.

This is unique to his ministry as an apostle.

I am not an apostle.

I did not witness Jesus's earthly ministry.

And so therefore these Things that Paul does, I cannot claim as

a promise to me.

These are unusual things.

And what happens sometimes is people take a one time event in scripture

or a period of time which is transitionary here in the book of

Acts, and they say, well, this is for me.

And so they, they use the exception as the rule.

And so what we're about to see here is a, is a passage of scripture

that some people will take and use as a promise to them and they

follow the example of Paul and therefore do things that are not

biblical.

So let's see what, what we're talking about here.

Verse number 12 says so that from his body were brought unto the

sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them

and the evil spirits went out of them.

Now if you don't understand what this is saying here, it's saying

that they took handkerchiefs of Paul that touched him.

Actually it's, it's literally his, his sweat rags that remember

he was a tent maker and so he would have handkerchiefs with him.

And for some way they understood that these handkerchiefs,

if they were touching individuals, would heal them.

It would heal them from their diseases and it would cast out demons.

Now you would say, is that something that we should practice

today?

Um, I, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't advise for you to take my

sweaty rags as a pastor and touch your friends with that.

That's not, that's not for us today.

And this is an apostolic action in a transitional time.

And for, for special things for Paul.

We know that even with Peter, you remember Peter, his shadow.

When people would walk in a shadow, there was healing.

And so these were apostles which are different than today.

And so there's a lot of people, I, I've seen this.

If you call into this number, I will pray over this handkerchief

and you will be healed.

Problem is, is that I don't believe that that's something that's,

that's given to us in scripture today.

I believe that God does the healing.

And by the way, I do believe that God still heals.

Okay?

There are still miracles happening today.

So a lot of times when people hear me preach, they say, pastor,

you don't believe in miracles, okay, you're speaking against these

miracles.

No, I'm not speaking against these miracles.

I'm speaking against an individual who says he has the power

to heal.

It's ultimately God who has the power to heal.

We pray for individuals.

The Bible even says in the book of James we can lay hands on

them and pray for them and anoint them but folks, I am not powerful

enough to do the healing.

And even as we see here, Paul is not powerful enough to do the

healing.

God gives him that power.

And so ultimately, what we can understand in, in context to our

church today is that there were people who had authentic faith

and there were people who did not.

We're about to see some examples of some individuals that

try to do the same thing that Paul was doing, but they can't do

it.

And we're going to see the difference.

And so what do we learn from verse 12 is this.

Wonderful things were happening through the ministry of

Paul.

The power of God was evident in his ministry.

The, the, the healing of God was evident in his ministry.

The marks of the Holy Spirit were all over his ministry.

So what we could say is this.

He had a fruitful ministry.

And so what Paul was doing was essentially allowing the power of

God to be used through his ministry.

Paul never claimed to be the one who was doing the work.

Remember, he says, you're here this morning.

What did Paul say?

I am nothing.

Okay, I, you know, who, who was Paul, who was Apollos, but just

ministers of the gospel.

That's First Corinthians, chapter three.

And so what we have to understand is this.

Paul, as he's serving God and as he has this relationship with

God, everyone is witnessing Paul's fruit.

Everyone is witnessing the power of God through Paul's ministry.

So we could say this would be like an individual today that is

preaching and, and there's fruit in his preaching.

Okay?

So may, maybe many people are getting saved under this individual's

ministry.

It would be very clear that the power of God is working through

this individual.

So let's see what happens next.

Verse 13.

And there were certain vagabond Jews.

These were, were what we're gonna see here in a little bit were

charlatans.

They were fakes.

They were basically scammers.

And they were riding on the coattails of Paul.

They were watching Paul's ministry and they said, well, what

Paul is doing seems pretty attractive.

We can maybe make some money off of this.

So we're gonna try to copy Paul.

And, and so what does it do?

It says, certain vagabond Jews, exorcist.

So, so they claim to cast out demons, okay.

Just like Paul was doing.

Took upon them to call over them.

And, and by the way, see what that phrase there says?

It says took upon them, meaning they, they're taking it upon

themselves.

This is not a call of God.

This, this is not that God is commissioning them for a Work.

They said, we're gonna do this.

And so this is a man made decision, not based in the power

of God, not based in the direction of God.

They said, this seems like a good idea.

So it would be me like, like me watching someone start a church

and seeing all these people coming there and they're, wow, look

at all that happening.

That seems like a good idea.

I'm gonna follow that.

And there's no spirit led decision.

It's just a decision in their flesh.

And so it says they took upon them to call over them which had

evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus and saying, we abjure

you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

You see what they do here?

They, they, they see individuals that are possessed by

demons, okay?

And that was happening at the time of the book of Acts.

And I do believe can happen today.

Not that every single person that's struggling with something

is possessed by a demon.

But we do know that that is a possibility in our theology.

They, they witness these individuals that are possessed by

demons.

And what do they do?

They use the name of Jesus.

They, they even call out the name, as it says there in verse 13,

they call out the name of the Lord Jesus.

And they say, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.

Now if you don't catch that, they don't say, my Jesus, my Savior.

They say, this is the Jesus that Paul preaches.

And so what they're doing is they're trying to piggyback on the

power of God through Paul's life.

And so we see a problem here.

They don't claim that Jesus is their Savior.

They're using a methodology.

They're using steps that Paul has taken.

They no doubt have seen Paul do this very same thing, claiming

the power of God upon an individual's life and seeing a demon

cast out.

But what are they doing?

They're trying to copycat him in their own power and their own

strength.

And, and so what we see is these, these apostolic miracles were,

were to validate Paul's message, the message of Jesus Christ.

And so some of these miracles involve casting out demons.

And, and, and we know that even Jesus did that within his own

ministry.

And so these religious fakes, these, these charlatans here in Ephesus,

they thought, hey, you know what, we can do the same thing.

And, and it says who they are in a moment.

Verse 14 actually says this.

And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the

priest, which did so.

And so we see it's these, these guys that we call the Sons

of Skiba.

And they see success in Paul's ministry.

They see fruit in Paul's ministry specifically with exercising

these demons.

And they, they, they try to create a formula to have the same

outcome as Paul.

So, so let me pause there.

And you say, well, what's wrong with that?

They're claiming the name of Jesus.

They're trying to cast out demons, they're trying to do a good

thing.

The, the problem with it is that they've tried to formulize the

work of God.

They, they've tried to reduce down the power of the Spirit to a

methodology.

And what do we see in churches today?

We see people that say if you do step one, step two, step three,

you'll see a church grow.

And they remove the spirit of God.

They remove the call of God.

You say, Pastor, I've never heard of that.

Trust me, there's books written about that.

If you just do these 10 steps that have nothing to do with the

Bible, you can grow a church.

You offer this, be seeker sensitive, find out people in your

community what they want.

Well, they want this.

So let's, let's give them that.

Now is there anything wrong with trying to find the people that

you're ministering to and trying to meet needs?

No, but the problem is, is that if we put that as the number

one decider of what we're going to do instead of the power

of God.

And so what they've tried to do is they've tried to reduce down

this specific thing, casting out demons to a step by step process.

Well, Paul says Jesus's name, so we'll say Jesus's name.

And, and they claim to say, well the same Jesus that Paul is

preaching is the Jesus we claim.

The problem is, is they have no relationship.

Let's, let's, let's go a little bit further here because this

is very interesting.

This is so very interesting.

So, so they come, verse 15 and the evil spirit talks back to them.

This is so unique.

We don't see a lot of situations in, in, in this case case,

but what we will see is that the, the actual evil spirit here

gives rebukes.

These guys basically in what he says, it says this.

And the evil spirit answered and said Jesus.

I know that's kind of interesting.

The Bible tells us that the demons believe that Jesus exists

and tremble.

We even know that in Jesus's interactions with demons and evil

spirits that um, they're afraid of him, they tremble at Jesus.

So there is power in the name of Jesus, but not just in the Name

of Jesus, but in the person of Jesus Christ.

Okay?

So they say, we know Jesus, okay?

Lest you think that just saying the name of Jesus cast out

everything.

They claim the name of Jesus, but they say, I know Jesus.

And here's another thing, what a testimony it is for Paul.

They say, Paul, I know, right?

So, so the enemy knew Paul.

Why?

Because Paul was doing things.

Paul, Paul was on fire for God and Paul was being used by God.

And so there's a recognition of Jesus, God, and there's a recognition

of his servant Paul.

But this is, this is interesting.

I love this.

He says, but who are ye?

Basically, I don't know you.

Never heard of you.

You've never caused me any issues before.

And, and, and I think that that's a lesson for us to see that

the distinction is this.

There was no relationship between these Jews, Jewish charlatans

to Jesus.

There's no connection there.

And so when we call out on the power of God, the reason why we can

receive the power of God is because of the relationship that

we have with Jesus Christ.

The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews, chapter four, you

can reference this.

The reason why we can access the throne of grace is because of

our great high priest, Jesus Christ.

And so what we can tell is that these individuals here had no

relationship with Jesus.

They tried to formulize this process of getting these demons to

leave for their own personal gain.

But there's no power of God there.

There's no power of the spirit.

And I think there's another lesson to be heard here that, that

the enemy knows and it goes after those who are causing them

issues, right?

And, and what we can see here is that this, these individuals,

they didn't even know them.

Why?

Because there was no reason for them to get in the way of what

they were doing.

Because what they were doing was counterproductive to the kingdom

of God.

Folks, when you, when you don't live for Jesus Christ, the

enemy's not gonna come against you, right?

Cause.

Cause he's got you.

He's got you doing what he wants you to do.

Wasting your life.

Really, folks, a lot of times when we step up for the cause of

the gospel, that's when we face persecution, that's when we

face opposition.

And when we face that opposition, say, great, wonderful,

I know I'm doing the right thing for the cause of the gospel.

And so what we can see here in this case is that these individuals

lacked a relationship with Christ.

That they, they wanted to use the name of Jesus, but they did not

have the right to use the name of Jesus.

They were not part of the family.

It would be like someone saying to me, you know, like, I'm

an only child, right?

Okay, so one day when, hopefully it's a long, long time

in the future, one day when my parents pass on to eternity, you

know, they're leaving.

They're everything to me.

And this other guy comes alongside and, and he goes, hey,

I'm your long lost brother.

And, and, and he comes and he says, I, we got to split this 50,

50.

And first of all, we're going to say, number one, no, where were

you?

Number two, let's take a blood test to make sure this is okay, you

know, and, and, and he's not my brother, right?

He has no claim to my family name.

He has no claim to say that he's part of the Massaro family,

right?

And that's the idea.

These individuals are not part of the family of God, but yet they

want to claim the power of God.

You can't claim the power of God and the promises of God and the

provisions of God if you're not part of his family.

And so, and so the distinction of an authentic church is this, that

we're preaching a relationship with Christ.

A relationship with Christ.

And I need us to think about this here today when we think about

what we are teaching in the church.

What are we teaching our children?

Because that's really, if you want to take a snapshot of what a

church is teaching, look at what they're teaching their children,

okay?

Because the children, that's who the, the next generation is gonna

be in the church.

I heard a youth pastor telling me recently, he said, you know what,

adults are just grown up teenagers.

I was like, you know, that makes a lot of sense in many more

ways than one, right?

But the idea would be this.

What are we teaching our children?

Are we teaching our children?

Hey, you should be a part of this religion.

You have to do X, Y, Z for God to love you.

You have to do this and this and this and then God will love you.

Those are all wrong teachings.

We want to teach to our children a relationship with Jesus

Christ.

You look at statistics today, look at statistics of young people

leaving the church, okay?

It's staggering how many young people are walking out of churches

when they turn to 18 years old.

Okay?

Why?

That's a big question.

I don't have all the answers to that.

But we interview the young people who stay, okay?

And, and one of, if not every, I would say it's exclusively the

reason is that most individuals that stay within church

say this.

I have a relationship with Christ.

Okay?

It was something more than just going to church.

It was something more than just following my parents religion.

It was something more than just following, you know, a person,

a pastor, because a pastor is going to leave.

Because some people's teaching is this, just get your young people

to fall in love with the youth pastor or fall in love with the pastor.

The truth is, is that what happens when the youth pastor leaves

and the pastor leaves?

Okay, well then, oh no, we don't have anyone here to believe

in, folks.

We preach Jesus and it doesn't matter who's in this pulpit, right?

And that's the idea.

We preach Jesus and so I don't care who's in this pulpit.

Obviously we want someone who qualified and preaching the word.

But that does, that should not matter with the concept of what we're

doing within the church.

And so the idea would be this.

When we are hopefully an authentic church, we teach people

that everything that we do is wrapped up in a relationship with

Jesus Christ.

So I, I don't get up to an unsaved person and say this, well,

Jesus loves you.

He's going to give you everything that you've ever wanted.

He's going to protect you.

He's going to guide you.

Folks, we're lying to an individual if they are not a child

of God.

Okay, so, so what do we tell that individual?

The individual?

You need Jesus Christ.

You need a relationship with him.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

And so what we can see here in this passage of scripture is that

these individuals were fakes, they were counterfeits and they had

a counterfeit message.

And so let's go a little bit further because what did I say?

Don't expect the power of God to rest upon you if you don't have

a relationship with Christ.

Don't expect the provisions of God to be upon your life as Jehovah

Jireh, if you don't have Jesus in your life and don't expect the

protection of God.

Look, look at what happens in this next verse.

So interesting.

And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them.

So, so as, as you know, theologically speaking.

And the, the, the evil spirit was indwelling a human being and

the human being that the spirit was indwelling jumps upon

them and overcame them and prevailed against them.

So what we can see is this.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, he protects you from the

evil one.

There, there is, I And, and, and I firmly believe this, that a

believer in Jesus Christ can claim the power of Jesus Christ,

can claim the protection of Jesus Christ.

And though we can go through difficulties, we're, we're not going

to have the enemy prevail against us.

But here, in this case, the enemy prevails against them, so that

they fled out and of the house naked and wounded.

The Bible says here that there was no protection.

Paul was protected.

Paul, Paul, Paul was protected until God's timing.

We know that eventually Paul through, through scriptures and through

church history that Paul was killed for his faith.

But that was in God's timing leading up to that.

God protected him in every single way.

And if it's God's will for us to do something, there's protection

there.

But what we can see here is that there's no protection on these

individuals because why they're not in the family of God.

They're not protected.

And so the ploy of these seven sons of Sceva backfired on them because

really what happened is, is they can fake it for a while, but

you cannot fake true faith when you're against the enemy.

Okay, they were, they were tricking the humans there.

They were, they were tricking people.

No, no doubt people are buying into that.

But when the rubber meets the road and the true test comes, your

true faith will be revealed.

And, and, and there's a lot of people who can fake it.

Okay?

Someone can get up and be a great speaker and memorize a script

and look very compelling.

There's someone who can get up and sing a song and it seems like

they really know what amazing grace is, but that doesn't mean anything.

The test is when the struggle comes.

The test is when the enemy comes against us.

Are we willing to say that, hey, I'm an authentic Christian,

when the struggles come, when the storms come, because really that's

the true test of faith.

And so no doubt they were faking it, and no doubt people believed

in that counterfeit.

But what we can see here is that they are revealed to be false.

And so the demon turns on them.

The demon possessed man jumps on them, gives them a beating and,

and leaves them as assessed there, naked and without anything.

You say, well, how can we, how can we learn from this?

Well, we could either be like Paul, who has a relationship with

Christ, who's able to claim the power of God, the provisions

of God, the protection of God, or we can be like the sons of, of,

of these, the Sceva, and, and allow ourselves to be counterfeits,

fakes you say, well, none of us are fake, Pastor.

Well, the reality is that all of us to some degree have levels

of hypocrisy in our life and we just have to be careful about

that.

But what I would say is this.

A, a, as a believer in Jesus Christ, we have an opportunity to

display to people what it means to have a relationship with

him.

And so when we compare the work of Paul and we compare the work

of these other fake professors of Jesus, we see that the difference

is the power of Christ resting upon Paul and the lack of power resting

on these individuals.

So the gospel is the difference.

And, and, and we see that happening here more and more as the

story goes along.

And so what can we take with us?

Well, first there is an enemy and the enemy is dangerous and we

should not fight against the enemy outside of the power of God.

I, I, I want to take you to a passage of scripture in the book

of Jude.

We just studied this on our Wednesday night series.

But I want you to see this.

For some of you that are not part of our Wednesday night series

or, or even if you were, I think this is important to see.

How do we face against evil?

How do we face against evil?

Because I think that a lot of people think, well, you know what,

I can handle it, you know, and, and the reason why is because

Satan and evil sometimes can be betrayed on Hollywood shows as

kind of like a joke, kind of like every other monster out there

in the world, you know, you can handle them.

It's all just fun and games.

The Bible says very clearly that we have an enemy that's walking

about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

And the Bible compares Satan to someone who wants to devour us.

And so I, I always tell people we're going to talk about this on

Wednesday night.

So just of a pitch for Wednesday night, we're going to be

talking about the theology or the study of evil and specifically

the study of our enemy, Satan.

We need to know who we're against.

And, and what I will tell you is this.

Satan is not all powerful, okay?

Satan is not omnipresent.

Satan is not all knowing.

But I will say that he has been around a lot longer than we

have.

He, he is, has a lot more resources than we have than in our

own strength.

And without the power of God, he will, he will get to us.

And what we have to see in the book of Jude.

Hopefully I gave you enough time to turn there.

The book of Jude, verse number nine.

We see a very interesting story of Michael the Archangel.

And Michael the Archangel, as it says here in verse nine, says

that he was contending or fighting with the devil, disputing

over the body of Moses.

Now some of you might not know that story.

You, you know, you're like, what?

I've never heard that story.

It's in the book of Jude.

And we believe Jude is inspired.

We believe that this is the complete word of God.

So what the Bible tells us is that Michael the Archangel and Satan

were disputing over the body of Moses.

You might say why?

Um, I don't know why.

It doesn't give us the why.

I have a lot of speculation why.

One of the reasons why they might want to have the body of Moses

is because a lot of people believe that Satan wanted to use

the body of Moses as an idol for the people of Israel, right?

They, they looked up to Moses and so if he could have the, if he

could have the body, because no one knew where in the Bible tells

us earlier on that no one knew where Moses was buried.

So, so if Satan could use the body of Moses possibly for an idol

or something that could keep their eyes off of God.

Um, but anyway, nonetheless, we don't really know exactly why

and we don't really need to know why, but we know that Satan

and Michael were disputing over the body of Moses.

And if anybody, if anybody could use their own power, it would

be Michael the Archangel, the most powerful angel.

Right?

But what does Michael do?

Says here, very interestingly, durst not bring against him a railing

accusation, but said the Lord rebuked Michael the Archangel used

the power of God to fight against the enemy, not his own power.

And I think that one of the many reasons why that's there in

Scripture is to teach us how we fight against the enemy.

We fight against the enemy through the power of God and not

our own strength.

And, and so again, one of the things that we can learn through

this passage here in the book of Acts is that Satan is real, demons

are real, and we need to fight against them and the power of God.

But then we also really need to realize that even Satan and the

demons recognize the authority of God, the authority of Jesus Christ.

You see that?

Remember they said Jesus.

I know.

And James chapter two, verse 19, you guys are familiar with that

verse that the devils believe or the demons believe and tremble,

and so they recognize the authority of Jesus.

But then we also can, can know this and, and kind of see kind of

the conclusion here when it comes to the idea of what we can

learn from this Passage is that the, the true distinction of

an individual that has the power of God in their lives is a

relationship with Jesus Christ.

And so if it goes on there in verse number 17 it says, and this

was known to all the Jews and the Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus.

So this was not a private affair.

This was a public display of the power of God and the lack of

the power of God upon these seven sons of Sceva.

Okay, so eventually it's revealed that they were fake.

And so how do we show the power of God?

We show the power of God by relying on our relationship with

him.

It's similar to what Paul talked about.

When I'm weak, he's strong.

So, so what does this look like for, for today?

If there's a church or a movement or a religion or anything

that says that hey, we're using the name of Jesus, we're the

same as you, we don't just go, oh well it must be good.

They said Jesus.

What does the Bible say?

The Bible says that there will be different Jesuses preached.

And, and, and the reason I'm telling you this is because this

is a popular movement today.

Popular movement today is just saying this, hey, they're good people

because they're preaching Jesus.

It might be a different Jesus.

It might be that they're preaching a Jesus that is not the

Jesus of scripture.

Say what, what do you mean by that?

Did you know that Jesus is mentioned in the Quran?

The Muslims believe that Jesus exists.

They believe that he's a worker of miracles.

But do they believe in the Jesus of scripture?

The way, the truth, the life, that Jesus is the son of God?

No, they don't.

And I can list multiple, let me say it this way and I'm safe.

I, I feel like I'm safe to say this, if not, correct me later.

But all false religions have a wrong view of Jesus, right?

We, we can all agree with that.

They all have a false view of Jesus.

It doesn't matter how right they are, if they have a wrong view

of Jesus, they, they have a wrong view of everything.

And, and, and Jesus even says that even, even in the New Testament

we see that they say test all the spirits, right?

Whether they come from God, what do they preach about Jesus?

And so these individuals were preaching hey, Paul's Jesus.

So, so, so they wanted to have some kind of relationship with Jesus.

They wanted to be in some way tangentially related to Jesus.

They wanted the effects of Jesus's ministry.

They wanted the blessings of Jesus's ministry, but they didn't

want a relationship with Jesus.

And we see a lot of specifically American Christians,

but Christians across the world.

And I say Christians with air quotes because there are.

You talk to a lot of people, they'll say they're Christians.

Are you a Christian?

Oh, I'm a Christian.

What makes you a Christian?

Well, I believe Jesus exists.

Well, that's not.

That doesn't make you a Christian.

What.

What is the definition of a Christian?

Little Christ.

I'm.

I'm a follower of Christ.

He is the way.

He is the truth.

He is the life.

Believing that Jesus exists is not enough.

I wish.

I wish that I could sit up here and tell you today that everyone

that believes that Jesus exists is saved, but that the Bible

doesn't say that that's true.

So what do we have to do?

We have to be very clear in the Jesus that we teach.

We have to be very clear in what the Bible says about Jesus.

And, And.

And what we have to do is we have to.

We have to preach a relationship with Christ, a relationship

with him and forgiveness of sin.

And so what I would say is this.

When we're looking at the world today in popular culture, someone

might say, hey, you know what?

Hey, they say the word Jesus.

They say the word love, they say the word saved, they say the

word heaven.

They must be from us.

Go deeper, take another step and say what?

What about Jesus?

Are they preaching?

I.

I just showed Alicia a video today, okay?

I was like, catch this.

I heard a guy preaching, and.

And I.

I'm gonna try to paraphrase what he said, because I can't quote

him exactly the way he said it, but he said one day, I was in

a room alone, and Jesus came to me and he gave me this vision.

And he came and he.

He wrapped his arms around me and he said, you know that pastor

that said something bad about you?

So apparently, by way of context, this pastor had another

pastor say something bad about him, okay?

And hurt him.

You know that pastor that hurt you.

You know what I want?

I need you to forgive me, because he's one of my children,

and, and he's part of me.

So can you please forgive me?

This guy's saying that Jesus is coming and asking him for forgiveness.

This is a pastor of a.

Of a big church, and he's literally preaching that Jesus was

asking this flawed human being for forgiveness.

Folks, that is heresy.

Jesus does not need to ask anyone for forgiveness.

He's perfect in every way.

Does not.

Does not sin.

And, But.

But it sounded good because he was up there and there was a lot

of emotion.

There was a lot of music playing.

And he was up there and everyone's saying, amen, okay?

Oh, I feel you.

Yeah.

Jesus came and asked for, you know, for forgiveness.

Folks, if someone's preaching that Jesus is asking for forgiveness,

that is.

That is heresy.

That is wrong.

Run away from that.

And that's just one example of many things that people will preach

different than Jesus.

And so you say, why are you railing on this?

Because all you gotta do is get on the Internet for about five

minutes and you can find about a thousand heresies about who Jesus

is.

And, and.

And I don't want to sit here and pick out churches and pick out

pastors.

All I want to say is this.

It's like the counterfeit money, folks.

If it's not the real thing, throw it out, reject it.

And, and so that's what we're seeing here.

And so this is a public thing.

Verse 17, it says, and this was known to all the Jews and Greeks

also dwelling in Ephesus.

And fear fell on them all.

And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

So.

So Jesus uses this.

God uses this as a way to point people to having an authentic

relationship with Christ.

Okay?

They see what it means to be fake.

And there was great revival here.

Verse 18.

And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds.

And so it was actually God's judgment upon these false teachers

that drove many people to the true Jesus.

And, and, and so what I would say for us here tonight is this.

Don't allow false teaching to drive you away from Christ.

Allow false teaching to bring you to Christ more.

Right?

The more people preach that we don't need Jesus is actually, the

more we need Jesus, the more people starting to preach that it's

all about you.

It's.

The more that it's not about me.

Look, the Bible was not written as me as the centerpiece.

And.

And likewise, the Bible was not written as you as the centerpiece.

The Bible was written as Jesus is the centerpiece.

So.

So if a sermon or a ministry or a study is about you and you are

the hero of the story and God is helping you become the best you

that you are this and you are that.

The.

The truth is this.

Yeah.

Yes, you have identity in Christ.

Yes, you have victory in Christ.

But at the end of the day, the call to action is not, I need to

think better about myself.

I need to think better about Christ.

Now, the more I think properly about Christ, the more properly I

think about myself.

So.

So it's not about self hate.

Okay?

By the way, I don't teach that we should flog ourselves.

There are some teachers and preachers out there in a very small

group that say we should actually harm ourselves because we

should hate ourselves because our flesh is evil.

That's not a good teaching.

Okay, what?

Because the Bible says that we present our bodies, a living sacrifice

wholly acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.

It doesn't say that our bodies can't be used by God, so we need

to kill our bodies.

No, the Bible says that we should use our bodies for the cause

of the gospel, so we shouldn't hate ourselves.

Cause sometimes when I get up here and preach and I say, guys,

you know, we're inadequate, people go, well, Pastor, why are

you telling me?

I'm not?

Am I supposed to not like myself?

No, but if the idea is love Jesus Christ properly and you will

see yourself properly.

Problem that we have in American society today is that we

actually think better of ourselves than we should.

And see, and that's the idea.

But, but if you love Christ properly, here, here's a.

Here's a thing that someone taught me a long time ago, and I

was just shocked by it.

But it actually is true.

It's very basic.

If you love Christ properly, you will love your spouse properly.

If you love Christ properly first, you will love your children

properly.

If you love Christ first, you will understand who you are in yourself

properly.

So it's having a proper perspective of Christ puts us in

the place where we're properly aligned in every other area of our

life.

So if we want to be a properly aligned church, who do we see properly?

Christian Christ.

And we reach people in the community.

Not because, hey, look at what we have or look at what we do or

look at whatever.

Let's point people to Christ.

That's what Paul did.

So the Lord Jesus at the end of verse 17, and I like this phrase

here, the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

What.

What if?

That was the testimony of Middletown Baptist Church.

What if, what if?

What if there was a book written about us at the end of time

and they say, Middletown Baptist Church, what were they known

for?

They had a really good potluck meals on Sundays.

I mean, that's.

I.

I like that.

It's a good thing.

I wouldn't want to, you know, say, say bring bad food in.

But the idea is, is that we want to be known for more than that.

That the Lord Jesus was magnified, that he was lifted up,

that he was.

That he was exalted that he was the centerpiece.

That's what it's all about.

Verse 18.

And many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds.

So what does this mean?

Means belief comes first.

Follow me here.

Belief, confession and works show their deeds.

It's not works.

Confession and then believe starts with belief, and with that

belief does come repentance.

Right?

We turn away from our sin.

We should turn away from.

We should want to turn away from our sin after we believe.

We should want to serve after we believe.

But what do you see here?

Is this.

That they believe and confessed and showed their deeds.

They worked.

So it's not works.

Confession, belief.

It's the other way around.

It's belief.

Belief in who?

Jesus Christ.

Many of them also, which use curious arts, brought their books

together and burned them all before all men.

And they counted the price of them and found it.

50,000 pieces of silver, you might say.

What.

What are we.

What are we.

What are they talking about here?

These people that watch these charlatans, these mystics get judged

by God were con.

Convicted of their own mystic arts.

And they took these things and they put that before this fire and

they burned it up.

And they said, no longer are we going to allow these things to

dictate our life.

We want Jesus Christ.

And the Bible says here that they.

They counted up the price of all the stuff that they destroyed.

And 50,000 pieces of silver, which I was looking at some commentaries

and, you know, obviously it all depends, but we're talking like

millions of dollars in our currency today.

It was like this big, big show and sign of submission to Christ.

Now I've been part of services.

I.

We got five more minutes here.

Just give me a second.

I've been part of services where we were so charged up with

what the preacher was preaching that we all threw our stuff

in the fire.

Was there.

All right, we were brought.

Bringing our tapes from home on our CDs and our DVDs that were

all sinful.

And this guy had this big bonfire and he's like, all right,

everyone throw it in the fire.

And we were like, yeah, we threw it in the fire.

That was a good act.

But the problem was, is that people kept some.

Some tape back home.

They had a backup plan or they had digital files to back it up.

The problem is, is that if we just throw things in the fire, that

immediately takes out the.

The instrument of evil in our life.

But if we don't change the heart, we'll go right back.

We'll go right back.

And.

And many of Those people that threw it in the fire, I knew them

and I knew what they went right back to a couple weeks later.

And.

And so it's not so much of destroying the things in our life

that cause the sin.

That.

That is an element of it.

And I'm all for that.

You say, pastor, I got some things in my life that are causing

me sin.

I.

I'll.

I'll be the one that starts the fire.

Okay?

Right there in the back in the fire pit.

We'll throw it in the fire.

But we're also gonna talk about how God can give you the victory

and the desire for those things.

And that's exactly what we see here, is that verse 20.

Okay, and we'll stop here.

So mightily, mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.

So, so, so what they did was this.

They.

They used this.

And they used this opportunity of their confession and their works

to a place where the Word of God was amplified.

So, so.

So the goal was this.

Not that they would just remove all the bad things from their

life, but that the Word of God was infused into their life.

And, and so it.

It's.

It's a life guided by the Word of God.

So, so a lot of people say, don't give me the Word.

I want to be guided by the Spirit.

Folks, the Word of God tells us what the Spirit wants for our

life.

People will say, you know what?

Well, the Spirit led me to do this sin.

No, the Spirit never led you to do a sin that was your flesh.

Because the Spirit will never lead you in contradiction to what

the Word of God says.

Why?

Because the same person wrote it.

Okay?

The Holy Spirit inspired the Word of God.

And so God is not going to contradict himself.

And, and so we see that the Word of God grew and prevailed in

their midst.

And after these things ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit when

he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem,

saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome.

So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him,

Timotheus or Timothy and Erastus.

But he himself stayed in Asia for a season.

So that kind of concludes that thought.

We're going to see that even in this time period, there's going

to be confusion in Ephesus and an uprising because of human nature.

But we'll stop there.

But one of the things I want you to see through this whole passage

at the end of verse 17, and at the end will all.

Verse 20, end of verse 17, authentic church has the name of

The Lord Jesus magnified.

An authentic church has the Word of God growing and prevailing

in their midst.

A growing church, biblically speaking, is a church that wants

the Word of God more.

So.

No, no, no, Pastor.

Growing churches, when the doors, when people are filing out

the doors.

No, that's not necessarily a growing church.

Okay?

That's a church that has more people, but that's not a church that's

growing.

Now, can a church that has a lot of people be growing at the same

time?

Yes, I.

I like to look out and see the pews filled on Sunday mornings, and

I would like to see it on Sunday nights.

But I'm thankful that you're here.

But on Sunday mornings, I look out and I'm like, hey, you know,

we're starting to fill up the pews, and that's a good thing.

But we can't say that that's enough.

What we have to say is that are these people growing in the Lord

in the depth of their knowledge of the Word of God and

application of the Word of God?

That's the bigger picture of growth because we can be a thousand

miles wide but be an inch deep.

And.

And I think that we should have deep roots.

Psalm 1.

Psalm.

Psalm 1 is the passage of scripture that we have dedicated

to our son Silas as his life passage.

Now, he might change that when he gets older, but in that passage

of scripture, it says a lot, but it talks about a man who loves

God's word.

And it says that he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers

of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.

His leaf also shall not wither.

And so what does that mean?

That means that we want to be deep Christians depth.

So that when the storms of life come, we have those deep roots.

Because you know what a tree we had a couple years back, we had

trees.

There was a big storm.

It was something called.

I don't even know what it was called, but it was like this storm

system that like pushes air down and then pushes it out.

And all these trees uprooted back there.

And we realized that some of these trees had really shallow roots.

They're really tall trees, but the root system isn't that deep.

Well, that tree looked like the strongest tree in the world to

me.

Like, that tree is like 40ft tall.

That tree.

I can't put my arms around that tree.

It looked good on the outside, but what happened is that it wasn't

deeply rooted.

And the storms of life came, and that was the test.

Some of those trees that were deeply rooted Stayed there.

And so that's what it's like in a Christian's life.

Oh, well, look, Pastor, I'm in church.

I look the part.

I talk like a Christian.

I can even claim the name of Jesus.

But if there is no depth to the root system, if there is no depth

to our belief, it'll look fine until what the challenge comes, the

storm of life comes.

And that's when we see the true test of a Christian's depth.

And so we as a church, yes, we want to be miles and miles wide.

We want to expand our church, we want to build new buildings, we

want to have more properties.

But also, let's get deep.

Let's get deep, because that's where true strength in the Lord comes.

And so that is the story of the seven sons of Sceva.

I don't know if you've ever heard of that story, but it's an

interesting story.

Some fake guys, and the power of God was not resting upon them,

and they were defeated.

But obviously, we know that the power of God was resting on Paul's

life because of his relationship.

So let's have a relationship with Christ.

If we can teach anybody anything at our church, it's that

we need Jesus and we need to have an authentic relationship with

him.

I want to be.

I want to connect with people at the church.

I think that it is my role as a pastor to.

To equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

Um, but the reality is, is that I don't want people to fall

in love with me.

I want people to fall in love with Jesus.

And that's.

That's the challenge.

The challenge is this.

Let's not keep our eyes on, man.

Let's not keep our eyes on a program.

Let's not keep our eyes on a church formula that.

You know what?

We don't need a.

A church formula.

We got the church formula right here.

Follow scripture.

Like, you know, there.

There are tactics and tools that can work in this town.

It might not work in this town.

It might work with this pastor, but it might not work with

this pastor.

As long as we're following the word of God, we have the freedom

to do what we need to do.

But the truth is, is that if we deviate from this and think that

there's another book that's better than this, we.

We've missed out.

This is the core piece.

And I don't care if there's 2,000 people or.

Or 20 people here.

That's what the core should be, and that's the goal for us as

believers, so hope that that's been beneficial to you here this

evening.

We'll continue on our study.

We'll look at acts, chapter 19 next week.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And we'll look at the confusion in Ephesus.

Cause believe it or not, in our humanity there's confusion.

And there, there, there is this man named Demetrius, which we're

gonna study.

And he makes this silver shine shrine to Diana.

And they, they come up with this chant.

Great.

Is Diana in Ephesus?

So, so quickly they forgot the power of God.

And so quickly we can forget the power of God and build our own

shrines to Diana.

Not literally to Diana, but you guys know what I mean.

We build our own shrines to things and we miss it.

So that's what we're going to talk about next week.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

You would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.

Com.

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.