Acts 20:1-19 - Mark Glenn

Uh good morning.

I ask you to open your Bibles to Acts chapter 19 if you haven't already.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And while you are turning there, I just want to say a special thank you to all of you and to uh Pastor Rick and Jimmy for inviting me today.

It's certainly a blessing.

Um all I will say is I've been in ministry for 20 years now, and um I remember investing in all three of those guys, four of those guys that he's mentioned.

And uh maybe this is a little side lesson for all of us this morning, but I spent a lot of time investing in them and trying to teach them and help them and all of the things ministry.

And I would say the last five years, there's nobody that has impacted me more than Pastor Rick, then Jimmy, then Rob and Sam.

And so uh it takes some humility to do that, but uh you are so blessed with great godly leadership here, and I praise God for them.

Um at Summit that's probably not much different than you all is we have meaningful membership.

And um every once in a while I'll sit in a membership meeting, and we'll certainly ask uh gospel questions to make sure that that these folks understand the gospel in its entirety.

And sometimes when we talk, uh there's question marks.

Uh certainly we want them to flush out and articulate, you know, the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

But there's some other elements that that I'm also looking for too.

And as our church was going through the book of Acts, uh, we ran across this passage that I think is very helpful in remembering that the gospel, man, I mean, you you can get in some deep waters as you have conversations about the gospel.

And in that particular meeting that I was just uh referring to, um, there were some uh some missing ingredients in that conversation that just caused me for a little bit of concern.

And so uh this passage has been helpful to us.

And so uh we're gonna be looking at again uh the first 20 verses in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

If you like to take notes, here's what we're gonna see.

We're gonna see in the first seven verses, we're gonna see the gospel's promise.

The gospel's promise.

And then we're gonna see in verses eight through ten the gospel's proclamation.

Very fitting to be here today.

And then we'll see in the last verses there, 11 through 20, the gospel's power, or you can also write the gospel's authority.

And so let's look at them one by one.

If you look at the first seven verses, let me read it.

It says this.

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and he 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 is a Holy Spirit.

And baptized.

And they said, Well, unto John's baptism.

And Paul said, John, he baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus.

And on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in tongues and prophesying, saying, and there were about twelve men in all.

What we see in these first seven verses is something very important about the gospel.

The gospel has a promise.

And we're going to flush that out here in a minute.

But what we see is Paul meets a group of twelve men who were, I guess you would call them disciples of John the Baptist.

And as he meets them, he he asks them a question.

He kind of wants to know where he's coming in at with these gospel conversations, where these guys are.

And so he says, Have you received the Holy Spirit?

And that was like gibberish to them.

That didn't make any sense to them that there was a Holy Spirit.

And they said, Well, well, we were baptized by John the Baptist, but we're confused about this.

And so John, John's baptism was a baptism that was about repentance.

John was the forerunner to Christ.

And if you remember what his ministry was, his ministry simply was to prepare the way for Christ.

And he told everybody in his message that you need to repent, for the one that is coming is the one who can save you from your sins.

And so, in essence, John's message was one element of what's very important in salvation, and that was repentance.

He called everyone to repent.

But John's message wasn't completely full in that not only did you have to, do you have to repent and confess of your sins, but then you must place your faith and trust in the whole weight of your life on the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

And then he goes on to say, of course, in this passage, that that when that happens, you end up being filled or indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Now, I understand this is a very educational church, uh, and so you you know your Bibles well, and if you remember the Old Testament, the Spirit of God was said to dwell in the temple.

And so throughout the Exodus, they they had this mobile tabernacle and temple that that went with them wherever they went, and they set this thing up every place that they camped out, and it was said that the very Spirit of God dwelled in the temple.

Now we know that the New Testament is uh the fulfillment of all of these things that took place in the Old Testament, and no longer is there an actual physical temple that that the Holy Spirit dwells in, because now the scriptures say that the Holy Spirit dwells in believers.

And this is the promise of the gospel.

This is when when when Paul came in on this conversation, he immediately knew that these folks didn't understand it all.

It's the promise of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life, and it's an understanding that there is repentance that's tied also to faith.

The full gospel is that.

Paul shares these things with these men who didn't understand the fullness of the gospel, and they they are then baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

And they understand for the first time the fullness of the gospel as they received the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

At this point in time, it was evidenced by speaking in tongues.

I'm not going to unpack all of that, that's not my job here.

But I will say one of the reasons that that took place was to authenticate Paul's ministry in a very wicked society that was practicing all kinds of false religions that dealt with magic and all of this stuff.

And this would combat that and show what the true power came from, which was Jesus Christ.

And so we see the gospel's promise.

And I think before we move to the next section, it's important for us to ask ourselves this question.

Am I and are you living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit?

If John were talking to you and said, Do you have the Holy Spirit?

What would your answer be?

And what would the evidence of that response be in your life?

Hopefully Galatians 5 comes up, and all of these things, these fruits that we should be bearing if the Holy Spirit is indwelling in us.

But at the end of the day, true gospel messages always include the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And then we see, so these men are saved, and and uh man, I can't imagine how excited Paul is, you know, 12 baptisms in the same day, and sure a huge party.

I mean, that's what it's all about, right?

Now look what happens in verses 8, 9, and 10.

I think this is such an important reminder to all of us.

So after this, he entered into the synagogue, and for three months, by the way, that's a long time for Paul to spend in the synagogue.

Normally he's stoned or or uh persecuted in some way and ran out of the synagogues for his message about the gospel.

But he got to speak for three months, boldly, reasoning and persuading with them about the kingdom of God.

But then what happened normally all took place here again, that they became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way.

And so before the congregation they did this, and so he decided to withdraw from them, and he took his disciples with them, reasoning daily now in the hall of Tyranus.

And this continued, not for three months, but for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

After Paul talks to them about the gospel's promise and sees these men truly saved, in his excitement, he can't help but continue to proclaim the gospel.

That's what we see in these three verses, the gospel's proclamation.

He sees these men get baptized, he sees the Holy Spirit seal them into salvation, and he goes and continues to proclaim the good news of the gospel.

Now, again, we we know that Paul would normally go into the synagogues to teach, and then what's interesting here is after he went there, then he he found this place, this uh most would call it a lecture hall, that was normally used for the philosophers of that day to debate and argue and try to get people to believe what they believed, to show their intelligence.

And so Paul had uh a wonderful audience to teach.

As these folks would come to this lecture hall, most believed that it was probably pretty large and that there were a lot of people that would come and they were coming to learn.

They wanted to come to just be smarter.

And so he had an opportunity now that a lot of us don't have to go into this lecture hall and take those that believed with him and began to share the good news of this awesome message of Jesus Christ with all of these folks who had all different kinds of dabblings and other religions and faiths.

And he did it very excitingly, and more people would come, and uh man, it was just a pretty amazing thing as Paul and his excitement did what only all of us should do when you see gospel fruit.

Go proclaim it again.

Go find another opportunity to proclaim it again.

May I ask, how are we doing at that today?

It's easy to come to church and feel like, you know, we're we're proclamation church.

That's what who we are, what we do.

But there is an opportunity almost every day for us to truly proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

Can I share a quick story with you?

Two weeks ago, I got a phone call from a coach that I used to coach basketball with.

I coached basketball at Licking Heights as an assistant varsity basketball coach, and the head coach called me, and we we've been, I haven't coached for a few years there now.

And he said, Hey, they call me uh Coach Rev.

Um and so he said, Hey Coach Rev, I got bad news.

Remember Jay Von?

Jay Von got killed in a car accident, and my heart sank.

Because Jay Von represented somebody to me that my wife and I had shared the gospel with, had in our home.

Uh if you're not familiar with Licking Heights School District, it's a very diverse school.

Um, I was the minority on the basketball team.

And and and so just a lot of needs, and our church sits really close to this school, and so we we decided to, as an outreach and evangelism technique, uh invite, I got invited to to coach for Licking Heights, and then we had a study table at our church for these kids, and J-Bon was one of those kids.

And we spent a lot of time with him.

There was a moment where he was struggling so much, and his parents got a hold of me and called me, and and he sad story.

He was going through some stuff, tough stuff, and his parents said, Coach Rev, J Bon's calling for you.

He's at this address.

And so I drove, and the address was a park, and he had a rope around his neck sitting on this playground set, ready to jump.

And he wanted to talk to me.

So I talked to him, I talked him off, he got in my car, shared the gospel with him, tried to help him, and and thankfully the Lord allowed us to have more time with him.

And then we got that call a couple years later that he was killed in a car accident.

So we had many opportunities to share the gospel then, and I text his family, I texted his mom and his dad after I heard the news that he had passed away, and I said, I just want you to know how devastated my wife and I are.

And I just thought as I sent that text, maybe God will use this as an opportunity to proclaim the gospel to this family.

I missed the phone call because I was in the vehicle and my phone goes on focus mode, and I missed four phone calls from J Bom's parents.

Coach Rev, you have no idea where we are right now.

We're actually at the funeral home.

And right when you text me, they asked if we had anybody that could do the funeral.

Would you do it?

And I thought, there's an answer to prayer.

I just asked that God would give me an opportunity to share the gospel with his family.

And I found out that not only did Javon die in a car accident, but his brother also died, who was a year older than him.

And so fast forward one week, I conducted a funeral.

I was the only pretty much white guy amongst 400 other folks who were just looking for answers, and to the best of my ability, I took the opportunity that God gave me to proclaim the gospel to this family.

I don't share that story because it's some hero story for me.

That happened because I was praying that God would give us an opportunity to proclaim the gospel in some form, in some fashion.

And God gave us that opportunity, and we did that.

And we all have small little opportunities just like that, where we have no idea how God might use that moment to bring someone to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And so now let's continue to look now in verses 11 through 20.

We're gonna see now, we we saw the gospel's promise, we saw the gospel's proclamation, now we're gonna see interestingly, really, really uh importantly, the gospel's power or its authority.

Let's look in verse 11.

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick.

And their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who have evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by this Jesus whom Paul proclaims.

And seven sons of Jewish high priests named Skeva were doing this.

Verse 15, but the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?

And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

Also many of those who were now believers came and they confessed and divulging their practices.

And the number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together, they burned them in the sight of all, and they counted the value of them, and found it came to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

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

We see here the power or the gospel's power or the gospel's authority.

In the first few verses there, we see how how that flushed itself out in the ministry of Paul, in that anything that had anybody that could grab a belonging of Paul seemed to have this gospel power to it.

And and it was uh because of the circumstances of that day, it was able to heal some folks and and to help some folks.

And so now that doesn't mean that that if you get uh pastors rick by Pastor Rick's Bible, that you might be able to heal somebody today.

That's not what this text is saying.

All right, but at this point in time, and in how uh the faith is is um moving along and expanding uh throughout throughout the world, God used that kind of thing to to announce his presence and to announce his son and the legitimacy of a ministry.

And so so we see that kind of power, and it reminds me of Matthew 28, verse 18, that says, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, which is Jesus Christ, and there's power in the name of Jesus.

Matthew 28:18

And and Paul was given that power by Jesus to be able to accomplish some of this great work that was done for the sake of the gospel.

But whenever there's power, right, that that's uh supposed to be used rightly, inevitably there's always power that's that's abused.

And power that's trying to tries to be taken in in the wrong way.

And we see that with the seventh guns.

Sons of Skeba.

They did not trust the gospel.

They did not know the gospel, but they love the fact of the attention that the gospel was getting, and they thought maybe we can get some of this attention.

And so they go up to this man who has is demon-possessed, and they try to bring this demon out in the name of Jesus, even though they haven't trusted Jesus.

Power abused, authority abused.

And man, I mean, if you I just as I put myself into this text and this story, I think what a terrifying scene this must have been.

As they they they try to bring this demon out in the name of Jesus, and they hear the demon's voice.

I'm not going to attempt to make that sound, but I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant sound.

I'm sure there was a little bit of uh laughing, evil laughing, and Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?

And then in that moment, to show that they had no power, the demon leapt on all of them, and they ran out of there wounded and naked and terrified.

But you know, what happens next is even more amazing.

God used that abuse power to then show how he has power over everything, because in that moment people were terrified, they turned their attention to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, they turned their attentions to the Lord, people confessed, they gave up these evil magical practices, they burned all their magic books, they they did everything they could to get right with God.

And there's more gospel authority and more gospel power on display.

Such an amazing text to see.

And something that we often forget is that there really is real, true gospel power.

There's true gospel authority.

I was just thinking of some of the gospel authority and power that we fail to remember sometime.

I'm just going to mention these if you want to write them down.

Go ahead.

You don't have to, though.

I think of, I think of there's divine authority or divine power, right?

And that's whenever it's truly from the Lord, it's given by God.

We already mentioned the verse, Matthew 28.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, to me.

That's divine.

That's that's divine power.

And then there's there's um not only divine authority, but there's also the authority to save in Jesus, right?

Romans 1.16 was read for us this morning.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God, the authority of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

Something we often forget is the authority in the gospel to transform lives.

2 Corinthians 5.17.

There, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, and the old has gone, and the new is here.

It's the power to transform lives.

The gospel has the power to transform your life if you truly are sealed by the Spirit of God.

And then there's authority over sin and death.

1 Corinthians 15, we know this.

Where death is your victory, where, O death, is your sting, but thanks be to God, he has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

An amazing gospel truth that because of the death of Jesus, He He defeated, He defeated sin, he defeated Satan, and he defeated death, and because he resurrected from the grave, he has authority over sin and death and Satan.

That's awesome power.

And then there's authority to judge.

We don't like that, but it's true.

John 5, moreover, the Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgments to the Son.

Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life.

We often forget that there's this power, authority that Christ has to judge, and he is a righteous judge.

And this world will be judged based solely on have you trusted Jesus Christ in his work on the cross.

And then there's authority to bring reconciliation, simply put, that because Christ has done what he's done, he can reconcile an unholy person to a holy God.

And therefore has the power and the authority in our lives to make sure that we're reconciled here on earth.

If we've truly understood our reconciliation with the Father, we should seek it out here.

And then, of course, the authority to command obedience, Matthew 28, 19.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to what?

Obey everything I have commanded.

There's that gospel authority and power too.

There's so much gospel of power and authority that we often forget about that can be applied in our own lives.

And so, in conclusion today, let me just make a couple of important things.

If you look at verses 18 through 20, we see an amazing response to all of these things that take place.

People begin confessing and repenting and turning their lives over to Christ, putting away their wicked practices, and the Lord grows the church, and the Lord grows his people in a mighty, mighty way.

And so if we take all of this, what are some things that we can ask ourselves for a personal level?

Briefly, I would just mention a couple.

Here they are.

One, remember this that if you truly have trusted the gospel, it's not just attending church, it's it's not just having a bunch of head knowledge.

It's remembering, as Paul was reminding these disciples of John, that true gospel, the true gospel always transforms us.

Are you being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ?

The word there is sanctification.

There should be a process in your life where you are being sanctified day by day into the image of Jesus Christ.

Is that happening?

Because it's certainly a question that we should be asking ourselves from this text today.

I say, secondly, the next question that we can ask and just kind of put into application today is this do you really believe that that Jesus does hold gospel authority and power?

Because if so, the truth is this that hidden sin, that that sin, that struggle that you are grappling with, there's freedom.

There's power that God will give us to overcome our sins.

There is gospel power in us if the Holy Spirit is residing in us.

And so you do have the power to overcome temptation and sin in your life.

And then lastly, in a setting like this, it's always possible.

It's a reminder to all of us that the gospel does demand radical repentance in our lives.

Radical repentance.

But it's not just repenting, it's not just confessing, you know, because all of us can feel guilty about stuff, right?

And say, Well, I repented.

I feel really bad about that.

Okay, that's good.

But then have you put the whole weight of your faith?

Have you sat down on the grace and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ?

I believe that's what this text is telling us today.

So would you bow with me as we close in prayer?