Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
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. |
Revised 2014-12-17