Books of the Book: Acts

The Mighty Word

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim & Mark Howard

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Series Code: ABOTB

Program Code: ABOTB00021A


00:22 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:23 We are studying the Book of Acts. My name is Pastor Mark
00:26 Howard. I'm here with my cohost and brother Pastor Jim Howard.
00:31 Jim, the last time we were in the book of Acts we were
00:34 studying in chapter 19 about... Well several things in chapter
00:40 19 but actually we were in 18 and 19. When we came into
00:44 chapter 19 and we were looking at a rebaptism. Before we look
00:47 at that again, we're going to just revisit that as we begin
00:51 chapter 19, we're going to ask God to bless our time in the
00:55 study of his word. I'm going to invite our viewers to bow their
00:59 heads and pray with us now. Father in heaven, we do ask for
01:03 the promised Holy Spirit to guide us into truth, to give us
01:07 understanding in your word, and we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.
01:11 We had seen in Acts chapter 19 that there were some believers
01:16 in Ephesus that had never heard of the Holy Spirit. They had
01:21 been baptized and when questioned by the Apostle Paul
01:24 into what they were baptized they said they were baptized
01:27 into John's baptism, that is John the Baptist, a baptism of
01:30 repentance. In other words, to all the knowledge that they had
01:34 they knew they needed to repent of their sins and to live
01:37 according to the will of God, but they hadn't come to an
01:40 understanding of the knowledge of Jesus Christ as the way of
01:44 salvation. So Paul preached the gospel to them and they felt a
01:49 need for rebaptism. Rebaptism is something that maybe some of
01:53 our viewers are unfamiliar with or maybe are familiar with but
01:57 didn't realize there was a biblical precedent for that.
02:00 Rebaptism is one of those things where the Bible commands
02:03 baptism. But the Bible doesn't command rebaptism. Rebaptism is
02:07 something that the Holy Spirit may lay on the heart of an
02:09 individual that in this particular case for example
02:13 feels that they have come into a fuller understanding that they
02:18 want to commit to through rebaptism. Now when Paul
02:22 rebaptized them the Bible says here in Acts chapter 19 and I'll
02:27 start with verse 5. When they heard this they were baptized
02:31 in the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul had laid hands on
02:35 them the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with
02:38 tongues and prophesied. Now it says the men were about 12 in
02:44 all. We've seen this before this idea of when the Holy
02:48 Spirit comes upon them we've seen different ways that this
02:53 has taken place. In this particular case Paul lays hands
02:56 on them and they receive the Holy Spirit. But that's not how
03:00 it has happened in every case in the book of Acts. In this case,
03:03 Paul lays hands on them and they prophesy and speak with tongues.
03:05 That's not how it happens in every baptism situation or in
03:09 every situation when the Holy Spirit comes upon individuals.
03:13 So we see that as we have said before some of these accounts in
03:17 the book of Acts are descriptive rather than being prescriptive.
03:20 In other words, they're not telling us how it has to happen,
03:24 but how it did happen and in this particular case it tells us
03:28 very little about what this looked like and if we want to
03:31 get a better picture we would be better off going to different
03:35 places in the book of Acts where it actually fleshes out what it
03:38 looked like when, for example, they received the gift of
03:42 tongues. So in this case, Paul lays hands on them, but that
03:45 didn't happen every time.
03:46 Yeah. In Acts chapter 2, for instance, we saw a very clear
03:49 picture of the gift of tongues in which they came from every
03:52 nation under heaven and the apostles preached with the gift
03:55 of tongues and they heard them speaking in their own language.
03:58 It was very specific about the gift of tongues. Here it's
04:01 really not. It just says they spoke with tongues and we can
04:06 only assume that the clearer passage is the way it actually
04:10 appeared here, so we let the clear passage inform the unclear
04:14 when we're studying the Bible.
04:15 That's exactly right and that's an important point we've made
04:18 before here that some people will take passages of scripture
04:23 that perhaps say things in a way that they want them to be or
04:27 that goes along with a certain way of thinking, but that may
04:31 not be consistent throughout scripture. Furthermore it may
04:36 be a little sketchy and if we have a passage that really isn't
04:40 very descriptive and we have another passage that is more
04:44 descriptive, we should always interpret the unclear passage
04:48 by the clear passage and not the other way around. So as we carry
04:53 on here in the book of Acts Paul moves past the rebaptism here in
04:59 verse 8 and it says, He went into the synagogue and spoke
05:03 boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading
05:05 concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some
05:09 were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the
05:12 way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew
05:16 the disciples reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus and this
05:20 continued for two years so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the
05:24 word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Now one thing
05:27 we see here, Jim, is what we looked at last time. The Apostle
05:31 Paul isn't just spending a couple weeks teaching.
05:34 He's three months in the synagogue and when he finds that
05:38 he's not got a receptive audience... This is very
05:41 interesting to me because I've seen this as a minister.
05:44 When you have an audience and part of your audience is just
05:48 not really open, and resistant and sometimes they even resort
05:52 to making comments. They detract from the ones who really want to
05:56 learn. Well Paul sees the need to withdraw after three months
06:00 and then he spends an additional two years or it says this
06:04 continued for two years, it may have included that three months,
06:07 but the point is that he is here for this period of time. I think
06:11 in fact if we look at this he was here for longer than two
06:14 years, the three months were in addition and there was some
06:19 other time in reckoning that and he taught during that whole
06:23 period of time discipling these new believers.
06:26 That's right. Well we pick up in verse 11. There's some exciting
06:31 things that begin to happen here in Ephesus. It says in verse 11,
06:37 Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul so that
06:40 even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to
06:44 the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went
06:49 out of them. Now the closest we can probably see something like
06:53 this in the life of Jesus was when the woman with the flow of
06:58 blood, she needed to be healed and she couldn't get to Jesus
07:01 because of the crowd and so she just reached out and touched the
07:05 hem of his garment. And just from the hem of his garment
07:09 virtue came out from Jesus and brought healing to her. There's
07:13 danger in looking at this and seeing aprons and handkerchiefs
07:18 and thinking that there's some power in a relic or something
07:23 like that. Exactly. Any time there was healing regardless
07:28 of how it came, whether it was through things like this or
07:32 without there were always a couple clear characteristics:
07:36 There was always Divine power and there was always faith by
07:39 the one who was being healed or the ones, at a minimum, who were
07:44 bringing the person to be healed.
07:45 That's right and faith in the person of Jesus Christ and not
07:48 in an article of a magic charm.
07:51 That's right. Excellent. Yet when we talk about this we're
07:55 going to see that faith is the important element that some
07:59 people don't understand and those that we're about to read
08:02 about didn't seem to understand it. And you keep reading in
08:05 verse 13, it says, Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists
08:09 took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over
08:14 those who had evil spirits. So these were some who were going
08:19 around trying to mimic what the Apostle Paul was doing in
08:23 calling evil spirits out and so they speak and say, We exorcise
08:29 you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. And it says, Also
08:34 there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did
08:38 so. Now you get a picture here that they're seeing this
08:41 incredible power and they're thinking, Hey, maybe we can
08:45 get the benefit of this power. They wanted to use this power.
08:49 It brings to memory a guy named Elymus.
08:53 Yes, exactly. We had a sorcerer who was doing that previously
08:57 and we have examples like Simon trying to buy the Holy Spirit.
09:01 That's right. We have Ananias and Sapphira who were wanting
09:05 the benefits of the common pool without having to sacrifice in
09:09 commitment of actually surrendering the full costs back
09:12 in chapter 5 when we studied that, of their land that they
09:16 had sold. So we recognize from this a couple of things.
09:21 First, they wanted the benefits of the church without the
09:24 commitment. You can't have the benefits of the gospel without
09:28 the commitment and the surrender to Christ. And secondly, they
09:32 wanted to use the Spirit instead of being used by the Spirit.
09:36 That's right. We've got to understand that the Spirit is
09:40 not a tool that we wield but the Holy Spirit is the power of God
09:46 who is God Himself who wants to use us and we need to go as the
09:50 Spirit directs and that's not exactly how this was. I'm sure
09:56 that the sons of Sceva who were here wanting to cast out this
10:01 spirit if the Spirit of God would actually have given them
10:05 the power to do that, I'm sure that they would have been happy
10:09 about that. But then if the Spirit of God would have told
10:12 them to go, as Paul did, into a town where they would be dragged
10:16 out and stoned, they probably wouldn't have done that.
10:19 And that's the difference. See we can't pick and choose where
10:22 God will use us. We need to be willing to go where God will
10:26 lead us. So as a result they didn't have much success.
10:30 It says in verse 15, The evil spirit answered and said, Jesus
10:37 I know and Paul I know but who are you? The Greek in this says
10:43 Jesus I know meaning and the word for know is different
10:49 between Jesus I know and Paul I know. It's Jesus I know meaning
10:54 I know the authority, I acknowledge and recognize the
10:58 authority. Paul I know in a sort of acquaintance way, I'm
11:02 familiar with Paul and then literally it's but you who are
11:07 you? So you get this picture that if it were Paul who was
11:11 claiming the name of Jesus, the spirit would have responded
11:15 differently. But just like Jesus could tell the difference
11:19 between someone who had faith and someone who was without
11:23 faith but was just trying to use the gospel in some way for their
11:28 own benefit. In the same was this evil spirit here can
11:32 clearly see that there's a difference. There's no real
11:35 power here. The spirit knows that there is no power when
11:39 there's no faith. And I go back to that story of the woman with
11:43 the flow of blood and how all those people were pressing up
11:47 against Jesus when she reached and touched his garment and they
11:50 didn't receive the virtue and power that came from Jesus.
11:53 But her faith made it effective and she was able to receive the
11:57 power of Jesus because of that faith. The sons of Sceva didn't
12:01 have that faith. They thought that they could have the
12:04 benefits of the gospel without having that type of living
12:07 active faith and as a result they were very embarrassed
12:11 because in verse 16 it says, Then the man in whom the evil
12:14 spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them and prevailed
12:18 against them so that they fled out of that house naked and
12:22 wounded. And very embarrassed I'm sure.
12:24 Wow, amazing! There's a lot in this. In fact, the first thing
12:30 that grabs my attention is Jesus I know and Paul I know but who
12:35 are you? These are people who are not committed to the Lord.
12:40 And Jesus said there are only two masters, you're either
12:43 serving one or the other. If they're not serving the Lord
12:46 they're serving the other master and the other master doesn't
12:49 even know the names of his own servants but he sure knows the
12:52 name of the Lord's servants. That's interesting. And then
12:55 furthermore these guys are using the name of Jesus like a good
12:59 luck charm. They think they can just take the name of Jesus
13:02 whenever it suits them, as you've touched on a little bit
13:05 here and I wonder to myself how many Christians use the name of
13:11 Jesus as a good luck charm, something that gains us some
13:15 kind of benefit. I can't help but think about an experience
13:19 I had once where my wife and I were looking to have some
13:23 service done and we looked in the phone book and there was an
13:27 ad for a service contractor with a little fish symbol which is
13:31 something that Christians use on a fairly regular basis to
13:34 advertise that they were Christian. The idea is, I'm a
13:37 Christian so I'm going to be honest and what have you.
13:39 Well that just wasn't' the case when we ended up... You know
13:43 I had to think after the fact that this person wasn't much of
13:46 a Christian. Why are they having this symbol? Because they
13:49 figured if I put that in there I'm going to gain people's
13:51 confidence because they're going to think I'm an honest person.
13:55 This particular business was using the name of Jesus to suit
13:59 their own purposes. So were these itinerant exorcists.
14:04 We're going to see a little bit more about that but we need to
14:06 take a break and when we come back from the break, we're going
14:09 to come back to Acts chapter 19 and we're going to look at
14:13 what the Bible goes on to say about this work in Ephesus.
14:16 So stay with us. We'll be back in a moment.


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Revised 2014-12-17