Righteousness Flowing to the Nations

Now, if you'll stand together, we will go to God's Word. Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

I'll begin with verse 11 and read down to verse 20. Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Hear now God's holy and inspired Word. 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 diseased left them.

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 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 spirit answered them, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I recognize, but who are you?

And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them,

and overpowered them, so that 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.

And 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 that it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.

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

This is the word of the Lord.

You can be seated. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you so much

for this worship service.

Lord, how we do thank you once again for material embodied character of our faith.

We don't simply believe in abstract ideas.

We believe in a God who came, who put himself in human flesh,

who lived among us, and who also gives us other people, members of the church,

local bodies with whom we can live and move and have our being together in Christ and by your grace.

We thank you for the word we have today. We pray that you would help us to understand

it and listen to it, hear it, and believe it. And as such, and as always,

Lord, through it, call us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

So this morning, I'm going to start sort of a two-part section on Acts chapter 19, 11 through 20.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And the section provoked me to ask you this question, and I'll be asking it

as we go through. Do you know the difference between miracles and magic?

Between miracles and magic? Because when you look at this section,

I mean, it says that they started taking handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched

the skin of Paul and then carried those handkerchiefs and aprons off.

And when those aprons touched other people or those pieces of clothing touched

other people, they were healed.

And demons fled from this experience.

Evil spirits came out of them. So much so that we'll see in the next section,

which we'll look at more closely next week, that a group of Jewish teachers

thought, well, looks like magic to me.

We'll just use similar sorts of incantations, and we'll invoke in the name of

Jesus, and we'll cast out these demons.

And I might add, although it's next week, I love that section because it's pretty

hilarious, these Jews, in the name of Jesus.

We know Jesus. What about Paul? You can imagine them invoking the name,

like a magician would, in the name of Jesus.

And we know both of them, but we don't know you.

And I think it's a stark contrast between the nature of miracles as presented in the Bible and magic.

Magic is an attempt to use things in nature to manipulate nature with the use

of nature itself, herbs, potions, or magical incantations and spells.

Stage magic, as I don't know about the rest of you, my friend just showed me

this really cool card guy on YouTube.

And you're looking at that and going, wait, wait, and he's going really fast.

And some magic tricks involving cards, it may just be a matter of sleight at

hand. You know how he's going like here and look over there.

The next thing you know, he's like, well, there's all the aces.

And so you're like, wow, it's magic.

It's a magic trick. The guy that pulls the coin out of your ear and all that

stuff, maybe trickery or sleight of hand.

But there is magic, and it's outlined and detailed in the Bible in many places,

not only in the Bible, but even today, where people are able through occult

or ritual magic to practice stuff, to harness unseen forces,

the unseen realm, the demonic realm.

And through the use of secret certain techniques like spells or incantations,

they're able to harness that supernatural power and move things in nature, make things happen.

You see it in the story when Moses is at the court of Pharaoh,

when Moses puts down his staff and it becomes a snake.

And then Jonas and Johnbury's like, hey, we can do that. So they throw down

their staffs with using magic.

They're not sure actually whether it's trickery, like they just have some sort

of sleight of hand where they've done this before.

But it looks like magic. It looks like they're tapping into some supernatural power.

And one thing's clear in that magic trick of Jonas and Jambres is that the snake,

the Moses step from snap, eats the other two snakes, eats them up.

And you'll notice they go on from there to try to mimic the miracles of Moses,

the first several miracles, and they're able to turn the water into blood and

do it. But after they start moving through the most powerful miracles,

they can't match it. They can't do it.

Their magic isn't potent enough. One of the key differences between biblical

miracles and magic is that miracles originate entirely from the power of God.

Whereas magic is used coming from this realm, from trickery or human nature or some other source.

And miracles, as we're going to keep outlining, aren't just random things that

can be invoked or provoked by a spell, right?

We know that because look at the next section shows us. These guys think they

can use a spell, like in the name of Jesus. And I'm going to try hard.

I know you know how hard I try never to criticize Pentecostal theology.

But some of these apostles who are always going around, you know, cursing and blessing,

throwing out things in the name of Jesus this, in the name of Jesus that,

as if they're a wizard or as if they're a magician harnessing a spell or incantation.

There's a danger to that because everybody is familiar when you look at stories

that involve magic of the fact that if you use the wrong incantation,

you're in trouble, right? You heard the story about the little boy who used

a magic book to call down an evil spirit to send it against someone else.

And it said, you're supposed to draw a pentagram and stand in the middle of

the pentagram and then say your magic spell.

And then the demon will come down and you can command him. You'll be safe in the pentagram.

Problem was the little boy didn't study geometry very well.

So it didn't work when he was standing in a triangle. Calls down the demon and

the demon gets him because magic spells involve certain techniques and uses of certain things.

And the Bible is not like that. Paul here in this story is not using a magic

trick to send it out. In fact, I'll note it and we'll note it again next week.

Scripture explicitly forbids us from magic, at least the magic,

not tricks, not card tricks, but incantations and spells and trying to tap into the supernatural.

In fact, Exodus 22 says, you shall not permit a sorceress to live.

It's a capital crime in Israel.

Deuteronomy 18 says, There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his

son or his daughter as an offering, or anyone who practices divination or tells

fortunes or interprets omens,

or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires

of the dead, you know, the seances of the 19th century.

For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord,

And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before

you. The peoples of the pagan lands all practiced magic.

They all were tempting to use their gods, who are really nothing more than demons,

to tap into the supernatural and to do things with that.

Well, what's happening in our story this morning? Because it's honestly,

and when you just read through it, it's a little strange, a little odd.

I mean, I don't know about you, but I've never been able to take.

I couldn't take my Geneva gown here and touch anyone with it and expect anything to happen by that.

So what's going on? I did, by the way, I will full disclosure.

I did receive once in the mail when I was a pastor at Covenant in Dayton,

a little card that says, you know, many blessings multiply your blessings.

I was like, okay, I'll open it. I opened it up and I pulled it out and it was a holy handkerchief.

And I had a picture of, well, supposed to be Jesus, you know,

long red hair, blue eyes, beard.

The only thing was if you moved it slightly, the eyes would open and close.

It's really creepy, the picture of that. And then it said, take this handkerchief,

pray over it and pass it on and you will receive a hundredfold blessings.

And the person who receives it and does the same will send back a hundredfold

blessings even more. So I took it and.

And put it in one of the elders' mailboxes, Brian Pinsenshawm.

And he unfortunately didn't see the magic in it and he threw it away.

Otherwise we might've paid off our church, you never know. But that was an example

though, it was from a Pentecostal ministry where they literally were trying

to raise money and send out these little holy handkerchiefs with strange pictures

of Jesus on it so you could receive blessings.

And this was one of the passages they cited.

Acts chapter 19, there it is. This is the practice of the church to send out

Acts 19 · chapter mention

holy handkerchiefs for the blessings of all the people.

All you have to do is have faith and believe it and you'll be healed.

But what is going on? What in the world is happening? Why would the apostles

even imagine to cut off articles of Paul's clothing and send such things out? Why would he do it?

Well, number one, we have to look at the context. Context and interpreting the

Bible is always important. What's going on here?

As Acts is unfolding and as we get more and more into the mainstream of Paul's

ministry, we see that he is now launching seriously into the world itself.

We've gone from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and now what?

Into the uttermost parts of the earth. This is a serious intrusion into the

world and kingdom of Satan.

Those places which had once belonged to Satan, and Paul said so,

and remember at Athens, God for a long time had overlooked these places providentially,

and he had limited the grace and mercy of God to one piece of land in Israel and one place.

In his temple, where the healing and righteousness of God could be found in that one place.

But now Paul said something interesting, didn't he? He said,

now all men everywhere must repent.

And the kingdom of God is moving into the kingdom of darkness in mighty ways,

a kingdom that had not been disturbed like any other time in all of history.

This kingdom was given over, as it were, to the realm of magic and witchcraft and sorcery and Satan.

So that's a context. Remember, Paul is launching out into this pagan Gentile world.

And what he is bringing is the clean righteousness of Jesus Christ to the nations

that they had never known before.

It's an amazing context. So Paul represents the church as an apostle,

and the church is now going to be the place of righteousness that will go out into the nations.

What's up with the clothing then? Why?

I know I haven't answered the question. Why does this happen?

Well, let me keep asking you a question. Why do miracles occur?

Remember, over and over in Acts, we've been reminded, miracles aren't random.

They're not done in terms of sorcery or incantation.

You don't just bump into someone and things zoom out and heal.

Even in the story that I'm going to mention, the woman who touches the clothing

of Jesus Christ, it doesn't just happen randomly.

It happens in concert with the message that Messiah will bring healing in his robes, in his clothing.

Messiah will bring to the nations through his clothing, through his works,

the righteousness of Jesus Christ to the nations.

And that righteousness will flow out from Jesus Christ.

It's an image that we see, that image in mind.

And by the way, when we start to look for New Testament reasons for New Testament

miracles, the only place we're really going to find the answer is the Old Testament.

Okay, you'll find your answers. And this is the way I'm doing the study of Acts

so far. I hope you've noticed. If not, hey, notice.

When I look at a story in Acts, I think, well, have we seen something like this before?

Have we ever seen any question or any item where clothing of a priest or clothing

of someone sends out righteousness? Well, we have.

And we just read about it in Haggai chapter 2. That was a central question. In Haggai chapter 2,

Haggai 2 · chapter mention Haggai 2 · chapter mention

There's a question, and it's a central question, and it has,

I hope you'll notice, messianic focus.

Haggai is telling them, I am going to shake the nations. We've seen Paul's language

reflect that. He's going to shake the nations.

When he converted Lydia, he was shaking the purple and the beautiful items of

Lydia out of their pockets into the kingdom of God.

I will shake the nations. In that context of hope, the people had a question,

a question that nagged at them and bothered them and was at the center of their whole life.

They knew, for instance, that the clothing of the priests were righteous and holy. They knew that.

The priests could take hold of food and items that were also holy,

and then their robes remained holy. So they had this question, and here it is.

The Lord God, this is Haggai chapter 211, thus says the Lord,

ask the priest concerning the law. This was a series of questions you see in Haggai.

These are central questions. That's why it's important. It's not just like,

hey, ask the priest, you know, what happens after we die and where do you go?

No, it's serious questions central to the covenant promises.

And he says, this is the question, if one carries holy meat in the fold of his

garment, these are the clothing of the priest.

And with the edge, those edges that they had tassels, touches bread or stew,

wine or oil or any food, will it become holy?

This is the question. Can righteousness flow out from the clothing of the priest?

That's the question. And the answer is no.

Not now. By the way, I think I was calling this, I think about 2021,

I might've preached a sermon from Luke chapter eight.

I don't know if you remember the woman with the issue of blood.

I'm not going to ask if you remember because you may not, but I think I preached

that. And that's where this is actually going to go.

So they asked the priest, since the priest's clothing are holy,

if he touches or brushes up against something, can holiness or righteousness,

can cleanness go out? And the answer was, sadly, and much to their chagrin, no.

And then they said, well, if anyone touches with their clothing and they're

unclean, other things, will they become unclean?

And the answer is yes. Yes.

You see that? This is a central problem in the Old Testament.

One of the central problems.

If holiness never passes out of the clothing of the priest, his clothing are

holy and righteous, but if cleanness never passes out, but uncleanness is always

pushing in, what are we supposed to do?

And of course, the only answer was go to the temple. Go to the place of the

presence of the Lord restricted to Mount Zion, restricted to his holy place,

and find the waters of cleansing at the temple.

There was a fixed place you had to go.

And if you couldn't get there, you couldn't be clean.

That was a central problem. And of course, it became a problem in the life of

the Jews because, well, if you're living outside of the land and you can't get

to the mountain, you can't get to the temple, what is a person supposed to do?

Answer, create thousands of different rules to keep you from ever touching anything that's unclean.

It's an endless progression of uncleanness. That's the problem.

So if you go out into the marketplace, if you're a wife and you buy some eggs

and you didn't know it, but the eggs were touched by someone who was unclean.

You take the eggs home, you cook the eggs.

The supper is now unclean. Everyone that eats your meal, mom, sorry, is now unclean.

And everything they touch, the house is unclean, the food's unclean,

the clothing's unclean, the children, everything's unclean.

And it's an endless, terrible progression of uncleanness, pushing in on the people of God.

And the only hope they had was to get to that temple, to get to the waters that

would clean them until Jesus...

Until Jesus and everything changes in his ministry.

You'll even notice, by the way, and you should, his ministry is characterized,

by pressing into the darkness, taking hold and touching things that couldn't

be touched. Why? Because they were unclean.

That could summarize his ministry. He went to people who were unclean and made them clean.

Something happened in the ministry of Jesus that had never happened before in

the history of the world.

The uncleanness that had always been pressing in, darkness that was squeezing

in on the people of God from every direction was stopped in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

It was stopped, it's amazing. We don't think about that very often,

but all of that pressure, the kingdom of darkness, constantly pressing in until Jesus.

And then there's the story also of that woman. Remember the story of this woman

who has an issue of blood.

And she comes to Jesus with her issue of blood. And she, remember the story,

she's 12 years, she has this issue of blood. There's no hope for her.

This was so characteristic of people who came to Jesus. There was no other hope.

A leper, how could a leper get into the temple for the waters of cleanness?

He couldn't because he was expelled from the temple because he was a leper.

How could a woman with an issue of blood ever get near to the priest?

To be cleansed or go through any ceremony. She couldn't. She was permanently unclean.

And there was no hope for her, none. And she realized it in that story in Luke

chapter eight, where she looks at Jesus.

She has this issue. She has spent all her money on doctors.

Everything she's had for healing, there's nothing she can do.

And she looks at Jesus and behind her look to Jesus is that question that's central to Haggai.

Can there be righteousness? Can there be healing that comes from the clothing of Messiah?

And guess what? She believed there was. And even though she was unclean,

and I love that part of the story because at that point she said,

heck with every rule, and she shoved her way.

It looks like she crawled on her hands and knees to Jesus Christ and reached

out and touched the hem of his garment, the edge, that tassel that represented

the righteousness of every Jew.

And when she touched it, power went out.

And this story sets the stage for the story of Paul and the book of Acts, doesn't it?

That was the first time in the history that we've known that central question.

Can righteousness go out from the clothing of the priest?

Yes, we know Jesus went and touched the blind and the lame started to walk and

the deaf could speak and demons were fleeing from him.

That's a good picture to have in our minds. Where Jesus goes, the darkness scatters.

And where Jesus goes, the demons flee. and where Jesus goes,

righteousness flows out into the people.

And this case, though, even though he'd been touching people,

this is a case where we see the question of Haggai answered in Jesus Christ.

Yes, righteousness will go out from the clothing of Messiah,

from the clothing of Jesus Christ.

Not only is uncleanness stopped, cleanness is now on the move.

We're in a different stage in life. We're in a different place.

We're no longer people who are sitting here wondering in a fort or holding out

under siege where we're wondering, can they make it? Can they make siege works?

Can they breach the walls? Can they come in? No, we're no longer like that.

Because of the ministry of work of Jesus Christ, not only is cleanness stopped.

But uncleanness is now being pushed back.

And Paul and his people are working in the boundaries of the evil one.

They are stepping into the realm of darkness at Ephesus, this center of witchcraft

and sorcery and demon worship.

We're gonna see that because all of a sudden and they start throwing in their

books on witchcraft and burning them. It's a glorious scene.

Book burning, everyone thinks book burning is bad. Sometimes if you have witchcraft

books, we could even have a burning here if you want. Hopefully no one has a,

witchcraft book. But here we see in the ministry and life of Paul, a recapitulation.

In other words, remember what I've been saying in the book of Acts.

Luke structures his study so that not only the things he tells us in the story,

but the way he tells us things also matters.

For instance, Jesus' ministry is constantly being repeated and in the ministry

of Peter and in the ministry of Paul. But with the exception,

notice it's even more extraordinary.

Right? Jesus heals a lame man. Peter heals a lame man and the lame man shouts

and dances his way right into the temple.

Everything is expanded with a resurrection power. So the apostles and the apostolic

ministry in Peter and in Paul repeat or recapitulate the ministry of Jesus with resurrection power.

That's why you would expect that clothing, the clothing of this apostle would

send out righteousness from those clothing in even greater measure than Jesus. Isn't that amazing?

Yes, one woman touched his robe and everything changed. But now in the ministry

and life of the church, the church is now the place of righteousness for the nation.

Resurrection and righteousness that goes out into the nation.

The church is the instrument of salvation to the nations where cleanness goes

out to the world. That's us, beloved.

That's amazing. Our church, now the congregation of the church of Jesus Christ

is like that ancient temple.

People needed to go there. If you couldn't get to the temple,

if you couldn't get to the presence of God, you couldn't receive healing.

You couldn't receive righteousness. You couldn't receive cleanness.

But now in the work and ministry of Jesus Christ, in and through his church,

the righteousness of God goes out to the nations. And we are that righteousness.

We are that place, beloved. We're the new temple of God. The image of the temple,

remember, that water would be coming out from that temple, and that temple would

flow out down the mountain and it would become rivers and it would move out into the whole world.

That is the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to us and given to us to take

also out into the nations.

The Holy Spirit now in the new covenant because of Jesus is sending out the

cleanness and righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's what happened on the cross.

When Jesus stood and took the cross, he took for us our unrighteousness, all of our sin.

He stopped the progression of uncleanness, and he not only stopped it,

he took for us our unrighteousness, but through that transaction,

he sends out his righteousness to everyone who will believe.

It's an amazing story. And Paul in this story is not, remember,

the miracles are going to stop in 70 AD.

So don't send me any holy handkerchiefs, elders or anyone, because the story

is not about magic or holy handkerchiefs.

The story is to remind us that just as Jesus Christ was able to send out his

righteousness from the very clothing.

The very clothing that the woman touched, now Paul, in even greater measure,

the apostles and the church were now here and are now also sending out the righteousness,

of Jesus Christ. It's an amazing story in that sense.

By the way, as you think about the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to you

by faith and grace through faith in Him, you need to think about your own righteousness itself.

Are you righteous in Christ? Are you living? Are you able by your life and witness

to go out into this world and bring the righteousness of Jesus Christ out into

the world? That's our mission. That's the Great Commission.

All the nations would be made disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, the infinite progression of uncleanness is stopped.

The curse has been handled. The curse has been reversed. And now it's for us,

the church, to take the righteousness of Jesus Christ into the world. Two things at least.

Two things at least. If you don't know that righteousness, I would plead with you to come.

Come to it now. Do not wait. It's there. You'll notice you have to have the

kind of faith this woman had. You have to understand you're hopeless.

And helpless, and there's no other hope. There's no other way.

There's nothing you can do.

That's the beauty of that story. This woman sat and looked at Jesus and contemplated

the question of Haggai and looked at her own situation and says,

I can't be clean, except maybe this one way. Maybe he's my only hope.

By the way, at the end of the story, Jesus said, your faith healed you.

She believed in Jesus Christ, and she touched the edge of his garments,

and she was healed and made righteous and clean right then and there. Do that this morning.

And those of us who have known that righteousness, those of us who have experienced

that righteous grace of Jesus Christ, see yourself as an agent of that righteousness

right here and right now.

Go out. When we leave from here, we are to go out thinking consciously,

wow, not only has uncleanness been stopped in Christ, but I have been given

the righteousness of Christ.

And it's part of my role and part of my job to take that righteousness out.

That's the message. The kingdom of God is moving out and there's nothing and no one to stop it.

Not demons, not sickness, not death itself, Paul says. Nothing can separate

us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

You and I are called to transform whatever we touch.

Whatever we put our hand or mind to, we are to be transformed by the righteousness

of Jesus Christ, and we are to bring that righteousness to whatever we touch.

Go, church, and touch the world with the righteousness of Jesus Christ,

giving to them that righteousness.

You'll notice something that, prophetically speaking, as the church begins to

fulfill this role, the church begins to fill this role, we see something interesting

in the prophet Zechariah.

He tells us what it's going to be like in our kingdom age. It's a beautiful

story. We need to get this in our minds, beloved. This is our story.

We have been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ through his work on the

cross. And we are at task with taking that righteousness out into the world,

to our families, to our friends, to the entire community, to the whole world.

So that the prophecy of Zechariah would be fulfilled, which says this, we'll close on this.

Zechariah 8 says, thus says the Lord of hosts, in those days,

10 men from every language of the nation shall grasp the clothing of a Jewish

man saying, let us go with you for we have heard that God is with you.

That's our hope in Christ. Amen. Let's pray together.

Lord, as we close this, your word, and as we move to your supper,

remind us even in the supper that you are reaching out to us.

And in the Holy Supper of the Lord, you're reminding us that you gave us your

body and your blood and you continue by your grace to give it to us.

Remind us of our need of the righteousness of Christ Help us to be thankful

for the righteousness of Christ As we reach out and take hold of the bread and

the wine May we by faith receive the grace and healing and cleanness of Jesus Christ,

Who loves us so much,

Bless us and help us we pray in Jesus name Amen.