Without Jesus, It’s Always A Swing And A Miss

[0:00] But anyway, this morning we're in Acts chapter 19. And it's so good to see you all. And if you have a Bible, you can open it up there. If not, don't worry, we're going to read it out and it's going to be on the screens.

[0:11] Acts chapter 19, and we're going to read the first 20 verses. Acts chapter 19, and we're going to read the first 20 verses.

[0:45] We'll follow through as we go through this. So Acts chapter 19. And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.

[1:04] There he found some disciples. And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

[1:19] And he says, into what then were you baptized? They said, into John's baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance.

[1:30] Telling people to believe in the one who was to come after him. That is Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them.

[1:45] They began speaking in tongues and prophesying. They were about 12 men in all. And he entered the synagogue. And for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

[1:57] But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with them, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.

[2:12] This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jew and Greeks. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.

[2:25] 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 had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the name of Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.

[2:50] 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?

[3:05] And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them and 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.

[3:20] And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices.

[3:33] 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 it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.

[3:48] So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevailed mightily. Amen. Amen. So, on Saturday the 18th of June, 2011, me and my wife set off in a small hired car on our honeymoon.

[4:15] Neither of us owned a car, so neither of us had ever driven very far. And we picked up the car around noon on that Saturday after leaving the wedding hotel that we stayed at.

[4:25] And armed only with my brother-in-law's sat-nav, we set off for the Isle of Skye. It was an adventure. A number of hours later, having enjoyed our first big road trip, we noticed an unexpected sight.

[4:42] Signs for Malague. More specifically, signs for a ferry. How did we end up here? We were supposed to drive over the bridge. I mean, why pay for the ferry if you can go over the bridge for free?

[4:56] But estimating that the detour to go back would be really far, and it just would be not worthwhile, we decided that perhaps while we're now here, we may as well just change plans and get the ferry across to Skye.

[5:11] We hadn't planned it, but we're in Malague now, and it'd be too far of a detour to go back. So, I jumped out the car, and I approached someone who looked like one of the ferry workers, and I asked him when the next ferry would be.

[5:23] And pointing out to one heading out in the near distance, he said, that was the last one. Uh-oh. So, we turned around, and we pulled into a small car park, and when we tried to reroute the sat-nav, it suggested going to Ullapool, which is absolutely miles away.

[5:45] We thought, what is going on with this sat-nav? For some reason, this sat-nav had no knowledge of the Sky Bridge. I don't know why, but that was a real problem for us.

[5:56] We couldn't access our phones, they were out of battery, we had nothing. But this sat-nav that was sending us to try and get a ferry, when there were no ferries available. Now, although technically there were other ways to Sky, at that particular time, on that particular day, there was only one way to Sky, and our sat-nav had no knowledge of it.

[6:18] It was a real problem. Thankfully, good timing. June, an older man who had parked his car in the same car park, and gone a walk, he returned in the short time that we were there.

[6:32] Enough time to give us a paper road map that he had in his car. And only then could we navigate to Sky Bridge, and get to our cottage, in time to unpack and go to sleep. Now, the upside of that true story was, that when we actually got onto Sky Bridge, it was a beautiful sunset.

[6:49] And being in June, you can tell what kind of time that was, that we were arriving. So, the sat-nav, was basically a swing and a miss.

[7:01] Using that sat-nav, could not find the only way to Sky. You see, it's no use having a navigation system, if it's only going off of old information. It's no use having a sat-nav, if it has no knowledge of the way.

[7:16] Now, it might take you far from where you were, but it won't get you to where you need to be. You'll still be left lost out in the dark. Now, this is the very situation we find, in Acts chapter 19, when Paul arrives in Ephesus.

[7:32] Verse 1, while Apollos, was in Corinth. And Luke, referencing that name, Apollos is important. Paul, passed through the inland country, and came to Ephesus, and there he found some disciples.

[7:45] Now, there's nothing unusual there. He found some disciples. We expect to see some disciples in Ephesus, not only with Priscilla and Aquila, but also with the ministry of Apollos in Ephesus.

[7:58] But verse 2 takes a very strange turn. It's really, honestly, quite strange. If you know this account, have you ever asked yourself, why does Paul ask this question to the disciples?

[8:10] Why does he ask, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed? Why does he even ask that? He must have seen something. We don't know where Priscilla and Aquila fit into this.

[8:21] They were there in Ephesus. They were doing a good work, but somehow these disciples are separate from them. Because if these disciples had been with them, they would have corrected them. Luke doesn't tell us every piece of information, but I think it's safe to assume that these people have probably not spent any time with Priscilla and Aquila.

[8:41] It's probably safe to assume that they were acting in a particular way that made Paul ask the question if they even had the Holy Spirit. Now, not everyone who calls himself a disciple is actually a disciple.

[8:56] Not everyone who is among disciples is a disciple themselves. In Paul's mind, he's expecting there to be no lag time between believing and receiving the Holy Spirit.

[9:08] There's something not quite right about these so-called disciples. And when their response is that they've never even heard that there even is a Holy Spirit, that Paul is flabbergasted.

[9:20] Well, into what were you baptized? What was your baptism? And they reply, well, into John's baptism. It's a bizarre situation in Ephesus.

[9:31] Firstly, although there were many people previously baptized in John's baptism, that was in Jerusalem. It's highly unlikely at this point in time that any of those people are still identifying with John.

[9:45] And it's very unlikely that they would be in Ephesus. It's even stranger that these people of John's baptism are identifying themselves as disciples.

[9:58] This goes back to what Luke says in verse 1. Apollos. Apollos was there and now he's in Corinth. The very reason why Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately is because Apollos was teaching about John's baptism.

[10:18] Remember, back in Acts 18.25, Luke tells us that Apollos knew only of the baptism of John. And here we have these people who call themselves disciples, but they only know of the baptism of John.

[10:33] This is the thing. See, if you preach a half gospel, you'll end up with half disciples. What use is a sat-nav that only takes you halfway but ultimately knows no knowledge about the way beyond that?

[10:50] See, these disciples were like me and Jen stuck in Malague. The sat-nav had got us to Malague, yes, and the preaching of Apollos had got these men to John's baptism, but just as the last ferry had already left Malague, John's baptism was not going to get these men where they needed to be.

[11:11] You see, the result of preaching an incomplete gospel is that you end up with incomplete disciples, with an incomplete conversion. They might be far from where they once were, but they're not yet where they need to be.

[11:27] You see, it's not enough to tell people in this world to clean up their act. It's not enough. It's not going to solve the problem. It's not enough to tell people that they're sinners and they should stop sinning.

[11:38] You see, I'd go as far as saying that repentance alone is not enough. You see, the gospel doesn't stop at repentance.

[11:50] Now, would the world be a better place if more people repented? Of course it would. Would the world be a better place if there were more disciples of John's baptism? Maybe.

[12:02] But the thing is, John's ministry was not the end goal. His ministry was preparatory. John's ministry wasn't simply to get people repenting.

[12:14] His ministry was to point people to the one who was to come. And so, whether or not these men knew that fact, this is what Paul pointed them to. Paul was saying John's end game wasn't that people would just repent and that's it.

[12:29] John's end game was that people would believe in the one who was to come after him. That is Jesus. Now, this is important because it's not repenting that makes you a disciple.

[12:42] It's believing in Jesus that makes you a disciple. And repenting is part of that, yes. That's part of John's ministry. But repenting was never going to be the thing that solved the problem of sin and humanity.

[12:57] Now, let me ask you this. If a violent man who lived a life of crime was caught and his sentence was then deferred, but while it was deferred, he decided to turn his back on crime and clean up his act, do you think the charges would be dropped?

[13:17] Do you think he would no longer be guilty? He would still be guilty. He would still be sentenced. You see, you all probably know the saying, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[13:33] Repentance alone doesn't clear one's debt. That's the big point. You see, repentance is part of it, but it's all pointing to Jesus. He's the only one that can clear somebody's debt.

[13:46] Now, John's baptism is like my leg after the last ferry left. There's a sea between you and salvation and you know nothing about the way. That's what these disciples, that's where they're at.

[13:59] There's a sea between them and salvation and they know nothing about the way. And here we get an insight into the incomplete gospel that Apollos was first preaching before Priscilla and Aquila took him aside.

[14:12] His preaching was a swing and a miss. Close, but no cigar. Hot, but not hot enough. So to understand why Paul is particularly interested in the Holy Spirit here, we need to remember that Luke, more than any other author in the entire Bible, Luke talks about the Holy Spirit and his gospel alone over a dozen times.

[14:37] It's more than any other single book in the Bible and Luke's gospel. But more than that, in the book of Acts, Luke mentions the Holy Spirit over 40 times. And it's not because Luke is particularly charismatic compared with other Bible authors.

[14:53] Rather, Luke's story, the Holy Spirit is the mark of God's people. See, God's people are set apart by the fact that they have the Holy Spirit within them.

[15:04] Luke has gone to great lengths to show that the Gentiles have the same spirit and conversion as the Jews when they come to Jesus. He's shown that God is not partial when pouring out his spirit.

[15:16] Anyone who believes in Jesus, God will give his spirit. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from. And most importantly, Luke hangs the entire mission of world evangelization on the power of the Holy Spirit.

[15:33] You see, as Jesus tells his disciples, right at the beginning of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth when you are filled and given power by the Holy Spirit.

[15:51] The only way that the gospel can go from them then to us now is the Holy Spirit. And that's why Luke is particularly interested.

[16:02] And so Paul, Paul's interest in the Holy Spirit is not for the sake of some charismatic interest, but rather because the Holy Spirit is at the center of the whole Christian life.

[16:13] The Holy Spirit is at the center of the whole mission. The Holy Spirit is the mark of God's people in Acts and in the world. So if you look at what Paul is doing here, it bears a striking resemblance to what Peter did in Acts chapter 2 when the crowd asked Peter, what then shall we do?

[16:35] And Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you. Now that sounds a bit like John, doesn't it? Repent and be baptized, every one of you, but that gets you to Malague. That gets you to Malague, but you need a bridge.

[16:48] And so Peter goes on, they're at the water, repent and be baptized, every one of you, you're at the water in Malague, but Peter goes on and says, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[17:04] That's the complete gospel. So basically that's what Paul is doing here as well. If you haven't received the Holy Spirit, then you haven't believed in Jesus. For if you believed in Jesus, you would have the Holy Spirit.

[17:16] You don't get one without the other. An incomplete gospel will result in people not believing in Jesus. And if people don't believe in Jesus, then they cannot possibly have the Holy Spirit. And if people don't have the Holy Spirit, then they cannot possibly be saved.

[17:31] They cannot possibly be forgiven. They cannot possibly be given eternal life. It's the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. the same Holy Spirit that will raise us from the dead.

[17:45] But it needs to be through believing in Jesus. Repenting alone is not going to get you there unless you believe in Jesus. Going to church is not good enough.

[17:57] Being religious is not enough. Being good is not enough. Only Jesus can forgive sins. Only Jesus can free us from sin. Only Jesus can deliver us from darkness.

[18:09] And only Jesus can deliver us from death. You see, the gospel cannot only be about repentance. It must be about repentance and faith. Repentance will take you to the water, but Jesus will take you across.

[18:24] He's the only way. Without Jesus, it will always be a swing and a miss. So when Paul goes into the synagogue for three months, we see that some of the Jews were stubborn and continued in unbelief, spoke evil about the way before the congregation.

[18:41] Now all their religiosity, all their devotion in the synagogue, all their praying and singing and hearing the word of God, it was all a swing and a miss because they ignored Jesus who it all points towards.

[18:56] Yet their stubbornness led Paul to move to the hall of Tyrannus and teach there for two years so that everyone in Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

[19:07] The big emphasis here is that the ones who have the Holy Spirit are the ones who believe in Jesus. So take heart, folks. If you believe in Jesus, then you have the same very Holy Spirit within you today.

[19:24] Same Holy Spirit as they received back then is what you have today. And what that means for you is that you are not stranded in the lake. you are not halfway there living on a prayer, as it will.

[19:39] You are over the bridge already. Just as me and Jen passed over the bridge from mainland to the Isle of Skye, with the Holy Spirit, you have already passed from death into life because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.

[19:54] Moving on, God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. Even handkerchiefs that he touched were causing diseases and evil spirits to leave people.

[20:05] So there was this group of itinerant Jewish exorcists who were the sons of a high priest called Sceva. These seven sons of Sceva, they noticed the success of Paul against evil spirits, so they decided to invoke the name of the Jesus that Paul proclaimed, as though Jesus' name could be used as an incantation.

[20:30] But when they came across a real evil spirit, and they tried to do this, they learned a very severe lesson about toying with the name of the Lord in vain.

[20:41] You see, in the Old Testament, you'll remember the Ten Commandments. In the Old Testament, it was the third commandment, wasn't it? Thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. It was the personal covenant name of God, the Tetragrammaton, Y-H-W-H, Yahweh, or Jehovah.

[20:59] And the New Testament writers basically connect that name with Jesus. Because the name of Jesus is the name that is above every other name.

[21:11] It's the only name given for people to be saved. It's the only name that everyone will bow to. And so, when these sons of Sceva use the name of Jesus in vain for their own success, the evil spirit sees that they have, they've got no authority.

[21:28] They've got no power. Who are them? Who are these sons of Sceva to use the name of Jesus? They don't know Jesus. This is the ironic thing.

[21:40] They don't have the authority to do that. They don't even call upon this name for themselves. Who are they to use the name of Jesus? You see, the ironic thing is that the evil spirit says, Jesus, I know.

[21:56] almost as if to say, you don't even know Jesus. I know Jesus. They even say, well, Paul, I recognize. Jesus, I know.

[22:09] But these exorcists who use his name don't even know Jesus. And more than that, Jesus doesn't know them, if you know what I mean. You see, it's like if you were to go to a movie premiere, say, in London or New York or somewhere fancy, Paris or wherever it is.

[22:28] If you were to go to a movie premiere and you thought, I'm going to try and get on that red carpet. And so you went up and the security stopped you. Hold on a minute. Who are you?

[22:39] It's okay. I know Jesus. It's okay. You know, well, you wouldn't say Jesus, but you would say the name of the movie star. Whoever's the star of the movie, you'd say, I know them. And they would say, well, everyone knows them.

[22:52] They're famous. Let me just check with them to see if they know you before I let you in. And the obvious answer would be that the star of the movie would be like, I don't know them.

[23:04] Who are they? Can you imagine arriving at the pearly gates and being asked on what basis you should enter in? And then you point to the person who's just went in and you say, oh, I should get in on the Jesus that they believe.

[23:20] leave. I'm afraid that's not how it works. Does Jesus know you? No. That's not how it works. You see, this is what Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 7.

[23:35] He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. And when they protest saying, oh, I did this and that in your name, I will say, I never knew you.

[23:46] Depart from me. it's not that Jesus doesn't know about us. It's about knowing Jesus and him knowing you. Personal relationship. You see, it was the one who knew Jesus, Paul.

[23:59] It was the one who believed in Jesus, the one who had Jesus spirit that had the authority of Jesus to do these things in his name. John chapter 14, 15, and 16, multiple times, Jesus says to his disciples, whatever you ask in my name, it will be done.

[24:20] That is a promise not for anyone. It's a promise for people who know him and he knows them. The name that we baptize in, the name that we pray in, most importantly, the name that we rely on for our own forgiveness and salvation is the only name that can do it, the name of Jesus.

[24:38] And we can be confident in that name because it's the same name that we call upon as the name that is in this. It's the name that we believe and the name that we trust. It's the name that we proclaim, not as a name proclaimed by someone else who knows him, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who we ourselves know and are known by.

[25:00] As Jesus says in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. The difference between Paul and these Jewish exorcists, the sons of Sceva, it's not that Paul had any special power of his own, is that Paul knew Jesus and they didn't.

[25:22] Paul believed in Jesus, but they didn't. Paul was known by Jesus, but they were not. Paul had authority from Jesus, but they did not.

[25:33] Paul had Jesus' spirit, but they did not. You see, the emphasis here is that the one who can use the name are the ones who believe in Jesus.

[25:44] The ones who know Jesus have his spirit. And his name, his name is not an incantation, it's the name of your personal Savior and Lord. And so, if you believe in Jesus, take not his name lightly, but at the same time, trust his name fully and confidently.

[26:05] For he has given you his name and the authority to pray in his name, to baptize in his name, to proclaim in his name, and to trust in his name, to get you to where you need to be.

[26:19] Lastly, following this incident, it became known all over Ephesus, and fear came upon everyone, Jews and Greeks alike, and the name of Jesus was extolled in the whole place.

[26:33] How about that? Wouldn't it be something to see people with a reverence in this town, all over the place, at the name of Jesus? Wouldn't it be something to see everyone, whether they believe or not, extol the name of Jesus as the one who can do this?

[26:52] And so, Luke writes, many who were now believers began addressing the things that they hadn't yet addressed. They were confessing and divulging their practices.

[27:04] A number of those who practiced the magic arts brought their books together, and they burned them in the sight of all, and it was counted the value of them, and it found that it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.

[27:16] So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevailed mightily. We've spoken about Jesus' spirit, we've spoken about Jesus' name, and lastly, we're speaking about Jesus' word.

[27:29] You see, Luke here contrasts the value and power of Jesus' word with magic books worth 50,000 pieces of silver. Now, back then, a silver coin was common payment for a day's wage.

[27:42] To put it simply, to give you an idea of value, copper was the price of bread, silver was the price of a day's wage, and gold was the price of a choice horse.

[27:56] So this, these books that were burned, it was counted and it was found that collectively these books were the value of 50,000. day's wages.

[28:09] Now, if you were to take the average or even basic rate for a day's wage in our country today, the value of these magic books would be over a million pounds.

[28:23] And yet, they burned them, and Luke writes, but the word of the Lord prevailed mightily. And I think two things are worth mentioning here. Look at the amount of money that people spend on things that are unhelpful.

[28:35] the amount of money that people spend on things that either bring harm or more darkness, or the amount of money that people spend on things that are completely ineffective for bringing life.

[28:47] The amount of money that I spent on completely pointless things that were going to do nothing for me in the end. You know, you've heard it said that you come into this world naked, you go out of the world naked.

[29:00] what you have, you can't take with you. Money spent on things that are not going to do anything for you. They're not going to get you over the bridge. Did nothing for me.

[29:14] But secondly, the big point is that all this money cannot do anything for you, but the word of the Lord can. That's the point Luke's making. Fifty thousand pieces of silver worth of books burned because the word of the Lord prevailed mightily.

[29:31] Word of the Lord did what that couldn't do. You see these incantations, and that's what it was. It was books of incantations for magic. Couldn't do anything.

[29:43] Same with the evil spirits. They would have these incantations. I adjure you by the name of Jesus. Yada, yada, yada. Does nothing. Nothing. The word of the Lord prevailed mightily.

[29:57] So Luke contrasts the ineffectiveness of over a million pounds worth of books of incantations versus the mighty power of the word of the Lord.

[30:09] Really, it's more valuable than over a million pound worth of incantations. More powerful than anything like that. So the thread running through the whole thing is about knowing Jesus.

[30:25] Jesus' spirit, Jesus' name, Jesus' word. It's all about Jesus. Luke highlights that the spirit of Jesus is the difference between no conversion and real conversion.

[30:43] The name of Jesus is the difference between powerful handkerchiefs and powerless exorcists. finally, the word of Jesus is the difference between wasting over a million pounds on pointless incantations and a gospel that's going to get you eternal life.

[31:04] By believing in and knowing Jesus, we have the same Holy Spirit that Paul had, that they had back then. We have the same powerful name as Paul relied upon back then.

[31:19] and we have the very same word of the Lord. This is the same word of the Lord that prevailed mightily back then. You see, without Jesus, it's always a swing and a miss.

[31:31] But the good news is we are not without Jesus. So, folks, have confidence in the spirit of Jesus within you. Have confidence in the name of Jesus when you pray.

[31:44] and have confidence in the word of Jesus when you share the good news with someone else. Let me pray. God, we thank you so much that we are not without your son, Jesus.

[32:06] That we are not left in Malague. We are not left with a half conversion, not knowing the way to go. even when someone asked, we don't know the way.

[32:18] What is the way? Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus.

[32:30] And so, God, we thank you that your word prevailed mightily for thousands of years so that we have the very same word with us today. The very same word that brought us the good news about Jesus so that we could rely on Jesus' name, so that we could have Jesus' spirit and so that we could know Jesus' word.

[32:55] And in that, you have given us eternal life. In that, you've forgiven us of our sins. And God, we thank you for that. And we pray that Jesus' name would be extolled in this town.

[33:09] We pray that more people would come to know life in Jesus' name because Jesus is the only one who can give it. God, we thank you for your faithfulness because this has nothing to do with us and everything to do with your goodness and grace towards us.

[33:26] And so, we thank you in Jesus' name and we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[33:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.