Our main text will be in Acts 19, but I just want to reference the verse in Romans 1.
So I'm really grateful for the singing this morning and for us praising the Lord together through song.
! The song I'd rather have Jesus definitely has a special meaning for me right now.
It was a song I listened to a lot when I first became a Christian in the early 2000s.
And the line of saying, like, I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land means a lot to me right now.
I've been going through a house buying process.
And just, yeah, some of you have done that notice how awful that can be and how sanctifying that can be.
And, you know, and we're thankful for homes, thankful for places that we can live out kingdom life in.
And there definitely is an obsession and idolatry in our nation when it comes to houses and throwing so much money, so much money into things.
And I hope that your soul can say that, that I would rather have Jesus than anything that this world has to offer at all.
And so, with that in mind, I'm looking at Romans 1.
Really well-known verse, but I just want to use this verse as a lens to read over Acts 19.
So, to be thinking about this verse as we go through Acts 19.
So, well-known, but Romans 1 verse 16, Paul says,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
And an overarching theme this morning is I just want to emphasize to you that the gospel is not just an important message or a powerful message.
It's like the only, the most powerful message in the world.
And it has the power to save dead and rebellious sinners and deliver them from their sin and from death to God,
to raise the spiritually dead to life.
I was just a minute to get out of curiosity.
I just looked up this word, the word power here in this text.
And verse 16, it's the word dynamis.
So, that sounds like dynamite.
Well, that's where some of the origin comes from.
But listen to this.
This word power, it means an inerrant power.
A power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature,
or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth.
So, it means that the gospel itself possesses so much power that it doesn't need anything on the outside to help it.
And in our culture, we've relied so much on gimmicks and ingenuity and theatrics and cool things to think that,
and thinking that that's going to be what saves people.
When all the same, you could have the worst speaker in the world come up here.
And if he truly, genuinely knows Christ and is preaching the gospel message, God can use that.
He doesn't have to be cool.
He doesn't have to dress right.
He doesn't have to be the most eloquent speaker.
He doesn't have to have smoke and lights.
He doesn't have to have anything.
The power of the gospel is enough in and of itself and doesn't need any help.
And so, keeping that in mind, let's turn to Acts 19.
That's where our main text is.
So, we've been going through the book of Acts, if you're new here.
So, we've been in Acts for quite a while, and we're getting into chapter 19 now.
Thank you for Caleb stepped in last week and preached for me because I was not feeling good and had a lot of other things going on as well.
So, Paul has been in Europe, what we would call Europe now.
And now, him going into Ephesus is kind of the launching place for the gospel going into Asia.
And so, it's a really awesome, awesome text.
So, the evangelism of Asia is here, and it kind of starts in the city of Ephesus.
But just join me in prayer before we go through this together.
Father, Holy Father, we recognize how unworthy we are.
And God, we would all be like Peter if you approached us and said,
Go away from me, Lord.
I'm a sinful man.
Not worthy to untie your sandals.
God, I just ask that you would use me to communicate your word to your people.
And if there are those here today who do not know the power of the gospel,
the message of your Son, Jesus Christ, that you would work in their hearts today.
It's for his name's sake we ask.
In Christ's name, amen.
So, we're going to pick up in the beginning of chapter 19.
All right.
Verse 1.
And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth,
Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.
There he found some disciples.
And he said to them,
Do you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe?
And they said, No.
We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
And he said,
Into what then were you baptized?
And they said,
Into John's baptism.
And Paul said,
John baptized with the baptism of repentance,
telling the 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 his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came on them,
and then began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
There were about 12 men in all.
And then he entered the synagogue,
and for three months spoke boldly,
reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
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 him.
Reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.
This continued for two years,
so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord,
both Jews and Greeks.
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,
so that even the handkerchiefs or aprons that he touched,
his skin,
were carried away 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 Jesus,
whom Paul proclaims.
Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Siva
was 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 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.
Also many of those who were now believers came,
confessing and divulging their practices.
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.
So today,
just by way of introduction,
just kind of want to,
we'll get more into,
so if you keep reading,
you see like if you have subtitles in your Bible,
it says a riot and nephesis.
We'll get to that next week.
That's attached to this message though,
so it'll be kind of going into next week.
But just a little bit about the city of Ephesus.
It's modern day Turkey
on the east side of the Aegean Sea,
and it was the capital of the Roman province of Asia.
So that's where their headquarters were set up.
That's where the governor of that territory was.
Major port city.
And it was the fifth largest city
in all the Roman Empire,
which at this time
hadn't got as big as it would be,
but it was really big already.
And the big thing,
and we'll talk about this more next week,
not to get into all this now,
but the big boast that they had
was that they had the temple of Artemis,
and that was also like the Roman goddess Diana.
We'll talk more about all that next week.
So if you like mythology,
come back next week,
and you'll see how Jesus kind of plays
the trump card over mythology.
But as we go through this today,
there are going to be five lessons
that we see,
that we can learn from Paul
in like sharing the gospel,
and kind of compare that,
line that up with like how
it is in your own life,
as well as,
there are going to be intermingles,
so don't think there's just going to be
the big bullets of this message.
All right,
if this message had a title,
it would be six ways
the gospel impacts a culture.
Okay,
six ways that the gospel impacts a culture.
All right,
so number one,
the gospel causes sinners to be saved.
That's what we just read in Romans 1.
The gospel causes sinners to be saved.
Very clear explanation of this.
We're going to walk through it
like verse 1 through 7.
So Paul comes into Ephesus,
and he encounters some disciples
of John the Baptist.
Apollos was in Corinth at the time,
and so he comes in
and just kind of runs into these guys.
And they had probably moved,
relocated from Palestine
or Judea to this region
while John the Baptist had his ministry.
So they probably left
before Jesus came on the scene,
most people believe.
And it's interesting
that John the Baptist
had an influence that far,
and his teaching
had an influence that far.
Apollos would be a great example of that.
He had had the baptism of John
and fully recognized
that Jesus was the Messiah
that John's testimony pointed to.
He just needed
a little further instruction.
That's what Nathan taught on
a few weeks ago.
So these disciples
basically had a lot of pieces
of the puzzle with that
and had the whole complete picture
put together for them yet.
So as followers of John,
they would have known
that John came to prepare
the way of the Messiah.
They would have known that,
but they did not know
that Jesus was that Messiah.
So here's one of those little sub-things.
Something you can learn from Paul
in this text
is that Paul initiates
gospel conversation.
Okay?
So,
I'm not going to downplay this
because we're going to see
another example in a minute,
but most people
in the church today,
they are not proactive
in actually talking to people
about Christ.
They're more reactive.
They'll think,
I'll just go about my day
and if God just drops somebody
in front of me,
then I will just talk to them.
Or they think,
you know,
I'll get a divine appointment,
which is true.
That's very true.
But,
I'm telling you that
like the gospel and the kingdom
will not be where it is
if that's all we did.
There are people
who must go out
and hunt down people
to share Jesus with.
And,
so,
this is one of those
opportunities.
He walks up,
he sees these guys,
and he just starts talking to them
about their belief.
He knew they were disciples of John.
So,
he kind of asked them,
if you look at this,
he uses very clear,
look at verses 1 through 7,
very clear,
intentional questions
to kind of draw out
what they believe.
It's that simple.
He just said,
did you receive the Holy Spirit
when you believed?
And to who were you baptized?
And their answers
just clearly revealed
that they were not quite,
I believe,
not quite born again
or saved yet.
And the reasons why,
there's two of them,
they said they had not even heard
of the Holy Spirit,
even though John taught
that Jesus would come
and baptized with the Holy Spirit
and with fire.
They hadn't even heard
of the Holy Spirit.
And then,
verse 4 reveals
they didn't even know
who Jesus was.
So,
but what's awesome,
though,
is Paul recognized
from his viewpoint
that John's legacy,
John's teaching,
had helped them recognize
what they had missed.
And so,
he basically just filled in
the missing pieces
of the puzzle for them.
So,
they were in a very,
very unique state
in redemptive history,
very similar to,
like,
an Old Testament believer
kind of waiting
for the Messiah to come.
So,
he basically is like,
oh,
okay,
I got you.
Got you.
John came to tell you
to turn away from your sins
and to prepare the way
of the Savior.
He was the voice
of the one crying
in the wilderness,
prepare the way
of the Lord.
Well,
the Lord came.
His name was Jesus
of Nazareth.
He lived,
He loved,
He died on the cross,
He was resurrected.
He is the Messiah.
And so,
they gladly received that
and were baptized
into the name
of the Lord Jesus.
And,
the result of that
is they began speaking
in tongues
and prophesying.
That's not a message
about this today.
But,
but,
very clearly,
it is done,
I believe,
in this text
as an outward
demonstration
and verification
of giving Paul
like a dramatic way
to enter Ephesus.
Because as we're going
to read,
there's a lot
of like supernatural
dark things
going on.
And for him
to kind of come
and show
in a very visible way
that the Savior
who he represented
was powerful
was very important
at the time.
And so,
these men
had deep roots
in the Old Testament
scriptures.
And so,
very clearly,
it meant a lot
to them
to hear that prophecy
out of Joel 2,
I think,
fulfilled.
So,
they were born again.
They were saved
right there.
So,
we saw that Paul
initiated gospel
conversation.
Excuse me.
Which leads to
the second thing.
Alright,
the gospel
causes sinners
to be hardened.
Alright?
See that in verses
8 through 10.
So,
right after that,
he went into
the synagogue.
So,
he happened up
on these first guys.
It just kind of happened.
So,
it was the
unintentional encounter
that he had
with John's disciples.
But now,
he very intentionally
goes into the synagogue,
which,
again,
he initiates
gospel conversation.
And,
it's almost like
a seek and destroy
mission.
He,
he sought out
the lost people
to allow the power
of God
to destroy
the sin
of their life.
And so,
he went,
as was his way,
he went into
the synagogue
to engage
with the people there
who understood
someone of the scriptures.
So,
here's some other
things we can observe
about the way
Paul engaged
in this text
right here.
If you look
at these verses,
verses 8 through 10,
just ask yourself
the question,
how did he speak
about the gospel?
Do you see him
like using
emotional manipulation
or theatrics?
It just says,
Paul spoke
the gospel boldly.
All right?
He spoke
the gospel boldly
about the things
concerning the Messiah,
the one that met him
on the road to Damascus
and saved him
from his sins.
And this idea
to speak boldly
means
to speak freely,
to speak confidently,
to speak with full assurance
about what you were saying.
Think about,
like,
how you talk about
the Savior.
Does it carry
that kind of confidence?
Like,
I know
in whom
I believed.
could you
just think about,
those of you
who are married,
think about
the confidence
you can speak of
about your spouse,
how they are yours,
that they belong to you.
And just think,
can I speak
with the same kind
of boldness
about the gospel?
So,
he wasn't unsure
or timid.
He didn't come across
uncertain or doubtful.
He was sure
about the Messiah
he spoke about.
So,
Paul spoke
the gospel boldly.
And another thing
to note under this
is that Paul
spoke the gospel
persuasively.
Okay?
Paul,
it says here,
was reasoning
and persuading them
about the kingdom
of God.
So,
again,
unfortunately,
a lot of churches
and ministries
have used emotional
manipulation
to invoke
a certain response
from people.
I'm not even
a musician
and I know this.
I mean,
I'm not a musician,
you know.
You can play
certain musical keys
to invoke
certain emotional
responses in people.
So,
are what people
are experiencing
actually real?
Is it like
the work of God
or is it just
an emotional
manipulation?
And usually,
like 15 minutes
after that service
is over,
you can tell
which one it was
by what people
were doing
and what they're
talking about.
And how they
lived their lives
outside of that.
And so,
what we see
is in reasoning
persuading,
right?
The genuine
gospel evangelism,
it's a call
to persuade people
to Christ.
So,
to be persuaded
is not to be deceived.
It's the opposite.
You're convinced.
Like,
you show them
the evidence,
you talk about it,
here it is,
this is Jesus,
and they,
the Lord uses that
through His Holy Spirit
to convince them.
They are persuaded
to follow Christ.
So,
throughout the book
of Acts,
you see that idea
of preaching,
teaching,
persuading people
to believe.
It's an appeal
to their mind.
It changes
their disposition,
and that's why
they believe.
Hold your hand there.
I don't have many places
for you to look at it all,
outside our main text,
but look at Acts 17,
just two chapters back.
Just to kind of show you
this is a theme
in Acts.
So,
he's in Thessalonica
in Greece,
and look at
chapter 17,
verse 1 through 4,
and just jump ahead.
It says,
on three Sabbath days
he reasoned with them
from the Scriptures.
Alright?
So,
that was his authority.
He wasn't using
his own opinions
or his own ideas.
He was using
the Scripture,
explaining
and proving
that it was necessary
for the Christ
to suffer
and to rise
from the dead,
and saying,
this Jesus
whom I proclaim
to you
is the Christ.
And some of them
were persuaded
and joined Paul
and Silas,
as did a great many
of devout Greeks
and not a few
of the leading women.
So,
you kind of see
this as a theme.
He's reasoning.
He's persuading.
Shilling people
who Jesus is.
And God uses that
to draw them
to himself.
So,
those are
awesome words.
So,
just to throw this
out there,
there are certain people,
I think spiritual gifts
are a good thing.
I think they're
a biblical thing.
But I feel like
the church
is just extremely
erred in the terms
of,
I don't have the gift
of evangelism,
so I'm not
going to share.
as
nowhere in the Bible.
You're called
to share
with the ability
that God
has given you
to share.
Right?
You may not be.
There are some people
that are very
gifted by God
to communicate
the truth,
to communicate
the gospel,
but that doesn't
mean that the rest
of us
should just sit back.
We all are
heralds of the gospel.
Alright?
And,
this is
a great example
of that.
Reasoning,
explaining,
proving,
persuading.
Okay?
So,
I also want to tell you
that persuasion
takes,
it's more of an art
instead of a gimmick
or a method.
Okay?
So,
it's more like
something like
fly fishing
or painting.
You practice
and you get better
and better
and better at it.
You can't,
I think we have
such an attraction
in our culture
to five-step things
and just show me
the method
and I will apply
this method
to every situation.
You know,
those of you
who are really engaged
in serious evangelism
know that just
doesn't work.
Can you sit down,
please,
while you're drinking
your cocktail
on the beach
while I share
five things with you
and most of the time
they don't even make it
past the second thing.
If you notice,
Jesus never spoke
to people
the same way.
You ever notice that?
Like he always had,
he applied the context
of the gospel
to the situation
that he was in
at the time.
So,
it takes time,
it takes practice
to be able to learn
to talk about
Christ.
So,
exercise those muscles.
Ask him
to help you.
And so,
it's more of an art
and not a method.
Kind of throw that
out there.
Alright?
So,
something else
we can learn
just from this
few verses
about
the way
Paul shared
the gospel.
And this is a big one.
I think this was
definitely lacking
in the American church.
Paul persevered
in gospel ministry.
That's it.
Paul persevered
in gospel ministry.
Most of us
go give it a shot
and if we get shot down
we don't want to go back out.
And we think,
you know,
I tried
and it didn't work.
You know,
we have to build up
some thicker skin.
We have to
understand
that winning people
takes time
to knock down
all the walls
in their heart.
There are some people
that come to know
Christ really quickly.
Others,
it's just a
constant battering
at their sin,
the idols in their life
and eventually
they are saved.
But just notice
that
it says that
Paul reasoned
and shared Christ
in the synagogue
for three months.
Alright?
And then
he did it daily
in the hall of Tyrannus.
He said it continued
for two years.
That's a lot of
teaching,
reasoning,
and explaining.
He said he did it daily.
He said that
all the residents
of Asia
heard the word
of the Lord,
both Jews and Greeks.
But as this
bullet says,
some are hardened.
Okay?
And that's what we read
that some of these
men in the synagogue
were hardened.
Don't bring
that junk in here.
We don't want to hear it.
It's against
everything we've ever
been taught.
And so,
the gospel can say,
but the opposite effect
is it can harden.
Men love darkness
rather than the light.
So,
when I think about
perseverance,
I think of
a hero of mine.
His picture's in my
study down there.
Some of you may know
who he is,
but his name was,
funny last name,
William Wilberforce.
And he was a
British
parliamentarian
in the late
1700s,
early 1800s.
Young guy.
was best friends
with the prime minister.
It was William Pitt.
But,
on October
28th,
1787,
he
dedicated his life
to two goals.
He says,
God Almighty
has set before me
two great objects,
the suppression
of the slave trade
and the reformation
of morals.
So,
he had not been
a believer
for a long time
and then he came
to know Christ
right at the height
of his political
popularity,
which any politician
would know.
That's like a big deal
because like,
now I've got to turn around
and tell everybody else
the opposite thing.
So,
he was really feeling
the weight of that
and he hated,
appalled,
the slave trade.
Cool enough,
his pastor
was John Newton,
the guy who wrote
Amazing Grace
and a man who was
a slave trader
before he became
a Christian.
And,
so Newton encouraged him,
take it out,
attack it,
God be with you,
you know,
I'm here.
And,
so,
the slave trade
and the reformation
of morals
in the British society,
none of those
were going to be
accomplished
in a quick speech.
None of them.
He knew it would
take years
and years.
John Wesley
wrote to him
in 1790
and listen to what he said,
unless God
has raised you up
for this very thing,
you will be worn out
by the opposition
of man
and of devils.
But if God
be with you,
who can be against you?
So like,
you're going to fail.
Like,
if this is a mission
you're going to undertake
on your own,
if God hasn't raised you up
for this,
then you're going
to be burned out.
So,
just think about it.
Walking into
a place like Congress.
So,
how many of you
are actually aware
of like,
you ever watch
like a British
Parliament thing
on TV?
It is nothing
like ours at all.
Like,
they make fun
of each other,
like severe sarcasm.
They make fun
of the highest office.
It's like a comedy show
sometimes.
So,
there's not that
respect.
Sometimes we might
see in ours,
but ours could be
going that way.
But anyways,
so when he went in there
the first time,
can you imagine this?
Like,
hundreds of men
sitting in this room
and probably 70%
of them have some
involvement in the
slave trade.
And then they're
standing up and
saying like,
I want to propose
that we make a motion
to end the slave trade.
Like,
the outrage
that came out.
So,
he knew that wasn't
going to come down
in one speech.
He knew it was
going to take years
and years to bring
it down.
So,
what he learned
about perseverance,
he wrote this
in a letter.
He says,
I daily
become more sensible
that my work
must be affected
by a constant
and regular
exertions
rather than
by sudden
and violent
ones.
In other words,
he understood
that if this
was going to happen,
it was going to
be a marathon run
and not a sprint.
And we have to
think of
sharing the gospel
that way.
It's a battle.
So,
I mentioned
Cody Klikner
a little while ago.
So,
when you see him
congratulating,
they won their
conference,
and now they're
going and playing
to some other
big things in the
nation.
And Cody really
seeks to live out
gospel life
on the baseball
team.
Very few people
who do that.
but,
so we were,
I did a lot
of ministry
with the
baseball team.
And there
was one year,
man,
we were just
shot down
and shot down
like nothing
we did
was working.
And every week
we just renewed
our strength
in the Lord.
And finally,
we were able
to put together
an evangelistic
Bible study
after it was
just shot down
multiple times.
Guys didn't
show up.
We were like,
you know,
order food,
show up,
and like 15
guys said
they were going
to be there
and like two
were there.
That happened
multiple times.
You just got
to remember
like they're
going to resist
and they're
going to be
hard-headed
and they're
going to be
stubborn.
But God,
the power of
the gospel,
can draw them
to himself
when he's ready.
And he did.
And several
guys came to
know the Lord
that year
through the
teaching of the
word.
So we have
to keep with
it.
We can't just
be upset
and run
away with
our tail
between our
legs every
time something
doesn't work
out.
Paul taught
two years,
almost daily,
to get to
where all the
residents of
Asia have
heard the
word.
So persevere
in gospel
ministry.
So I should
tell you that
Wilberforce,
he started
that battle
in 1787.
Or excuse me,
I flipped it
over the wrong
time.
Yeah,
1787.
So on
February
1807,
so nearly
20 years
later,
the slave
trade was
taken down
at 4 a.m.
in the
morning.
That's 20
years of
constant
slander,
being attacked.
And he saw
it as a
work of God,
a work of
the gospel,
not as
just political
change.
So such
is gospel
evangelism.
We have
to persevere.
Number
three,
the gospel
causes
miraculous
acts.
Verse 11
through 12.
So a
good while
back,
I did a
message on
things like
this.
You can
go back
and look
it up
later.
But
miracles
and acts,
healings,
they're usually
a means for
God to open
the door,
to get the
attention of
people in
these contexts,
to show
that Jesus
is the
Christ,
and to
confirm the
messenger,
that he is
being used
by God.
And in the
last message
that I said,
does stuff
like this
still happen?
Absolutely.
Why don't
we see more
of it in our
culture?
Either we're
not looking,
or I also
believe the
greatest barrier
to people in
the West or
in America is
more ideologies
and wrong
thinking and
secular humanism.
That's where
if you go
to a place
like the
jungle,
or I
have a good
friend of
mine from
India,
his nickname
is Jojo,
that's what I
call him.
He has
literally long
beard and
dreadlocks and
he has a
ministry in
Delhi,
and he sees
a lot of
this.
Well,
that is where
people are
oppressed
in a spiritual
way that does
come out in a
demonic fashion.
and so
Paul was
going around
healing people
and God was
validating that
message that he
was the messenger
sent by God.
And the whole
handkerchief,
apron thing,
there's a very
constant belief in
the ancient East
that objects
associated with
holy people
had power,
power,
but really
the idea is
like God
saw fit to
give Paul
an extra
measure of
power,
that the
faith of,
it's like
touching Jesus
to him in
his garment.
Jesus' garment
didn't heal the
guy,
Jesus did.
It's the same
kind of concept.
So it wasn't
these were
magical objects,
but rather
God saw
please to
manifest his
power so
intensely through
what Paul is
doing.
This happened
at Cyprus
and at
Philippi,
previously in
Acts.
So,
another
observation
about Paul
here was
Paul was a
yielded vessel
for the
gospel,
okay?
He allowed
himself to
be used
by God.
He yielded
to the power
of the Holy
Spirit.
He had no
ability in
himself to
save or
heal anyone.
Ephesians
3,
verse 7,
Paul said
this,
writing later
on to the
church that
was planted
here.
He says,
of this
gospel I
was made
a minister
according to
the gift
of God's
grace,
which was
given me
by the
working of
his power
to me
through who I
am the
very least
of the
saints.
So,
I'm no one
special.
This grace
was given
to preach
to the
Gentiles
the
unsearchable
riches
of Christ.
So,
you don't
have to be
special.
You don't
have to
have a
seminary
degree.
You just
need to
know the
scripture,
know the
Savior,
know the
gospel,
in order
for God
to use
you.
Be a
yielded
vessel for
the gospel.
Number
four,
the gospel
causes false
teachers to
be exposed.
This is one
of those stories
that is like
definitely
rattled the
cage.
Verse 13
through 16,
we see that
there were
some itinerant
Jewish
exorcists,
right,
who were
around
Ephesus.
And there's
a lot of
history and
ancient records
that kind of
give people
ceremonies and
rituals and
formulas to
cast out
evil spirits.
And they
would collect
them in
books and
sell those
books.
And so,
even for the
Jews in this
time, in the
first century,
there was a
lot of these
kind of spells
and there was
a lot of
demonic activity
and they
would try to
use their
words to
get rid of
these evil
spirits.
So,
Jesus was
able to
cast out
demons by
the power
and authority
that he
had.
We all
know that.
And he
gave that
same authority
to his
disciples,
his apostles.
So,
in a very
pragmatic
matter,
you know,
these guys
are watching
Paul do
this with
the real
power of
Christ and
they say,
hmm,
Jesus Christ.
Maybe that's
another word
or name I
can throw
into my
formula book.
To practice
the same
kind of
thing,
that'd
be kind
of cool.
So,
they go
out and
try this
and they
just get
it handed
to them
severely.
So,
why didn't
it work
for them?
Okay?
Well,
number one,
these,
they failed
to know
the Savior
himself.
Okay?
If you're
going to
invoke
somebody's
authority,
you have
to know
that person.
You have
to have
a relationship
with that
person.
It can't
just be
a magical
word that
you just
kind of
throw out
there.
Example,
if you
were coming
from Caesar
in this
day as a
messenger and
you evoked
his authority,
that carried
a lot of
power with it.
Right?
But,
if you
did not,
if you
were a
false
messenger,
it could
cost you
your life.
So,
the power
of someone's
name carries
authority,
but only as
far as that
relationship is
there.
So,
these
chance to
get rid of
evil spirits
did not
work.
And,
they were
stripped
naked,
and they
ran away.
That was a
great picture
of shame
and humiliation,
and that
scared the
blank out
of the
people in
Ephesus.
Because,
they were
like,
wow,
these guys
were at
the top
of our
school here,
and they
just got
handed to
them by
a real
demonic
spirit.
These books
must not
work.
This is
dangerous.
Let's
get rid
of these.
So,
that flows
into the
next thing.
Number
five,
the gospel
causes
idolatry
to be
renounced.
Verse 17
through 20.
Alright?
So,
very,
very strong
belief in
magical
incantations
in this
period to
cast out
evil
spirits.
They had
spells for
protection,
to get
somebody's
love,
to have
good
child
birth,
to have
all kinds
of stuff.
So,
they had
so many
rituals.
So,
50,000
pieces of
silver,
probably
referring to
the Greek
dragma at
the time,
around
six million
dollars
in today's
currency.
So,
not just
like threw
away comic
books,
they threw
away like
seriously
published
quality books
at that
time,
and they
renounced
it.
And it
says that
it was
all in
the name
of the
Lord
Jesus.
It was
extolled.
He was
extolled.
And so,
a severe
book burning
of the
right kind,
that's
associated
with a
very negative
thinking,
but of
the right
kind,
idolatry
is renounced.
Okay?
So,
when someone
comes to
know Christ,
idolatry is
a big thing
that they
will face.
Okay?
It says
in Romans
1 that
we've
exchanged
the truth
about God
for a lot.
Romans 2,
excuse me.
And so,
all of us
have worshipped
idols.
It doesn't
have to
be a
statue of
something.
We all
have loved
and given
our attention
to things
that are
infinitely
lesser
than God.
And God
calls that
idolatry.
It's making
things into
ultimate
things over
God.
And so,
Paul wrote
in 1 Thessalonians
1.9,
he says,
I remember
how you
turned to
God from
idols to
serve the
living and
true God
and to
wait for
His Son
from heaven
whom He
raised from
the dead,
Jesus who
delivers us
from the
wrath to
come.
So,
idolatry is
renounced.
These people
who have
this deep
pagan past
turned away
from it
and turned
to Christ.
So,
ask yourself,
though I'm
not worshiping
a statue
or reading
a spell
book,
what are
idols in
my life
that still
compete
highly for
my love
and my
attention
to love
more than
the Savior?
So,
number six
and lastly,
this is what
we'll get to
next week,
the gospel
causes hostility,
severe hostility.
That's number
six and that'll
be the rest
of this chapter.
chapter.
But,
I thought
it would be
fitting
to read you
something
because I
have a great,
there's a great
tendency of
people in
the western
church to
think that
this stuff
isn't real
anymore.
It is.
So,
there's a
ministry that
I supported
in years past
called
The Every
Tribe.
I encourage
you to look
them up.
They're very
gospel-centered,
solid,
reform,
mission group
to every
tribe.
This is,
the founder
of it is a
man named
David Seton
and he did
a ton of
ministry in
Papua New
Guinea and
the tribes
and jungles
there.
Very
brave man
for the
gospel.
He wrote a
book called
Reckless
Abandoned.
So,
if you want
to read a
book that
really pushes
you,
it's called
Reckless
Abandoned by
David Seton.
So,
excuse me,
I'm still in
recovery by the
way,
so thank you
for bearing
with my
health right
now.
He did a
lot of
work with
a tribe
called the
Chambri
Tribe and
he started
it in
the late
80s.
And,
as you know,
like in a
lot of
tribal
cultures in
Papua New
Guinea,
there's
sorcery,
there's
witch
doctors,
there's
a lot
of serious
death and
paganism.
In those
cultures,
and it's
real,
it's like
demonic
oppression.
And,
so I'll
read to
you,
my reading
out loud
voice is
not the
best this
morning,
so,
but I
hope that
God enables
you just
to listen
to this,
it's really
good.
But I
want you
to see
that all
the things
that we
just talked
about,
all these
points,
still happen.
They're all
the same
thing,
when a
gospel comes
into a
culture and
shakes it.
okay,
he says,
this is David
talking,
he says,
over hundreds
of years,
the Chambrite
tribesmen have
devised a
ritual to help
them discern
the identity
of the
person who
is responsible
for death.
Then that
death could
be avenged
and the
spirits
satisfied.
The ritual
is called
muabu,
which means
the shaking
of the
bamboo,
initiated
by men,
call upon
evil spirits
to come
and possess
them and
to empower
a bamboo
pole,
which will
indicate the
guilty person
in the
Chambrite.
So they
lay a
stick of
bamboo on
the ground
and it
would move
and point
to the
person guilty
of the
crime.
And so
he says,
the Chambrite
men have
boasted to
me for six
years about
how easy
it was
to conjure
up evil
spirits.
It is so
simple,
they would
say,
even our
children can
do it.
Tribal
children grow
up learning
how to
manipulate the
spirits through
a variety
of sacrifices
and magical
rituals.
So just
like we
read,
and he
says,
Antonio,
who was a
woman in
this tribe
who had
died,
she was a
Christian.
And so
they were
trying to
find someone
to blame
for her
death.
And so
she was
buried that
afternoon
in the
chamber
were prepared
for the
ritual that
same evening.
As the
sun was
setting,
more than
200 people
gathered in
the open
area before
the huts.
Two young
men stood
up to
begin the
solemn
incantation.
One man
held a
five-foot-long
bamboo pole
while the
other tapped
on it
rhythmically
with a
human bone.
He chanted
softly,
at first
inviting the
spirit of
Antonio to
take control
of the
bamboo.
Then his
chants became
louder and
more aggressive.
Excuse me.
He says,
I inched over
toward the
bamboo.
So David's
moving right
up towards it.
And he said,
Annoyed that
they were
attempting to
conjure the
spirit of
Antonio,
to him was
a sister in
the Lord.
I shouted
at them,
Antonio is a
follower of
Jesus.
She is in
heaven with
God right
now, and
her spirit
will not
appear tonight.
Some minutes
later, an
intense verbal
and spiritual
warfare ensued.
The
chambery
sorcerers were
begging with
the spirits to
come and take
over the
bamboo physically.
But I
prayed the
Lord of
restrain them
to show
himself to
be more
dominant than
these ancestral
spirits.
Finally, after
many hours, they
gave up and
disgusted, they
said, the
spirits won't
come tonight.
And I said,
that's right.
I snapped
back at them.
Our great
God is more
powerful than
the spirits, and
he has proven
his superiority
by disarming
your spirits and
forbidding that
bamboo to move
tonight.
It's every time
before it had
moved, and he
said, it's not
going to happen.
In the name
of Jesus, and
it didn't
happen.
He says,
suddenly, anger
and confusion
erupted as
people were
running around
screaming and
throwing coconuts
at us.
I thought the
people were
chasing after us,
so I yelled
to our team,
run.
They took
off, sprinting
down through
the grass.
As a part of
my team hustled
back to our
campsite, I
continued to
shout at them
God's truth and
power and
authority over
their spirits.
So he's
running and
yelling back
at them kind
of thing.
I persisted
with loud
preaching about
the supremacy
of God over
evil spirits.
And then
unexpectedly, a
woman appeared
out of the
shadows of a
thatched hut.
Along with
those by my
team, it was
obvious that
she had a
surge of
demonic
power.
Obviously, this
was a very
and more
potent
sorceress.
she waved
her hands
over her
head and
began to
chant and
dance to
plea with
the spirits
to move
the bamboo.
Once again,
there was a
time of
intense
spiritual
conflict as
she begged
the spirits
to reveal
themselves.
I continue
to pray
loudly for
the power
and presence
of our
Lord to
invoke her
and disempower
her to
raise the
spirits and
to take
control of
the bamboo.
Amazingly,
to me,
the Lord
promoted me
to issue
a challenge.
It sounds
like something
I like a
lot here in
the promise
of Baal.
I yelled
at her,
Rosa,
bring out
your most
powerful
sorcerer.
If he
can persuade
these spirits
to shake
the bamboo,
we will
follow and
worship your
spirits,
but if he
can't do
it, you
will need
to repent
and worship
and follow
our God.
Sounds just
like Elijah.
him.
So Rosa
became even
more desperate,
twisting around,
dancing frantically
to summon the
spirits, but
the bamboo
remained
lifeless.
Finally,
with loud
cursing, she
gave up and
retreated back
into the
night.
One of the
men grabbed
the bamboo
and angrily
shoved it
through the
doorway of a
hut.
As the
villagers began
to disperse,
I quickly
issued the
challenge once
more for
them to bring
out their
most powerful
sorcerer,
like this
is all
you got?
Anybody
else here
want to
give it
a go?
But they
refused to
try.
Instead,
these furious
villagers chased
after us as
I shouted,
Christ is
greater than
your spirits.
So,
this is when
a machete
wielding
tribesman ran
after me.
He took
three quick
steps forward
and raised
the bush
knife over
me.
I
wheeled around
to avoid
being hit in
the head.
Fully
expecting to
be hit,
he slashed
and he
missed.
When I
peeked around,
I saw one
of the
unsaved
chambery
men had
jumped between
us and
said,
leave this
man alone.
Why would
an unsaved
man do
this?
Not because
he was a
believer.
He wasn't.
He did it
because he
had seen the
obvious
demonstration of
God's
authority over
the evil
spirits.
And he was
afraid of
what our
God would
do to
him if I
was killed.
To my
amazement,
forty
chambery
villagers
encircled
me and
quietly
take me
back to
my camp.
My strength
left me and
I began to
fall on the
ground weeping.
I wept because
of the great
love for the
chambery.
I wept because
of this
incredible
adrenaline rush
of almost
having my
head chopped
off.
I wept because
of the
realization God
had just
shown through
us of a
display of
his power
openly rebuking
the spirits
that ruled
over the
chambery for
thousands of
years.
All that
emotion exploded.
The machete
man, the guy
tried to kill
him, came to
visit me the
next day.
He brought a
gift of two
beetle nuts and
apologized and
he says, I don't
know what came
over me last
night, but I
almost killed
you.
He says, I
responded to
him, I know
what came over
you.
You are a
servant of
evil spirits,
but last night
our God showed
himself to be
more powerful
than your
spirits.
You need to
repent and
turn to the
Lord Jesus.
This man's
western name is
Bob.
Sorry, Bob.
I now
jokingly refer
to him as
Machete Bob.
He has
become my
best friend
among the
chambery and
recently has
come to know
Christ and
he follows us
around every
day helping
us in
everything we
did.
So before he
became a
believer, he
insisted I
use his
canoe and
boat motor
whenever I
needed to go
up the river
to talk to
the tribes
about Christ.
the spiritual
conflict with
the sorceress
was a turning
point in
evangelism of
this tribe.
Dozens of
villagers began
inviting us to
speak with them
and many came
to know Christ.
This demonstration
of God's power
has given them
courage to
listen to the
gospel message
and seriously
consider who
Jesus Christ
really is.
Good stuff.
So you see
all these
things we just
mentioned happening
even in
cultures today
and they still
will even in
ours even
though we
don't always
see supernatural
signs.
So believe
and trust in
the gospel is
the power of
God for
salvation to
all who
believe.
Let's pray
together.
Let's pray
together.
Let's pray
together.