Through The Bible - Acts 19 - Part 2

Brett Meador: Many Christians are saved, but they're running around like flashlights with no batteries. What are the batteries for the Christian? To let your light so shine before all men, that's where the Holy Spirit comes in. That's the dunamis, the power. Why would you want to walk through this life with your own power?
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador affirms the power of the Spirit is there for all who ask.
Brett Meador: I pray this daily, that the Lord will fill us with the Spirit. The coming upon of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit, simply comes by asking. You can just say, "Lord, I want you to fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit."
Guest (Male): In Acts chapter 19, we follow Paul into the city of Ephesus where the gospel collided with hardheartedness. But powered by the Holy Spirit, the simple preaching of the Word of God was able to transform lives. Pastor Brett Meador offers more good understanding from today's word of the sanctifying and enabling influence of the Holy Spirit on the life of the believer.
Brett Meador: Acts chapter 19. We're going to start in this chapter 19 at looking at the 12 disciples, but you might not think it's the same 12 disciples. Did you know there are two sets of 12 disciples in the Bible? This is a second group of 12, not quite as dialed in as the first 12, but we're going to meet 12 more. They heard the word, and these 12 disciples believed. Then they were baptized with water, which again, notice it says they were baptized with the baptism of repentance in verse four. But verse five says that was the baptism of John. But verse five says, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. But see, this is again, they were already called disciples and they were already believers by this time. This is again that argument about baptism. Baptism is really good and it's important to be faithful, but it's not that which saves you. We see this here. Paul then, what does he do? After he baptizes them, then the third component here is it says verse six, when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on, that's the upon, them. Now they're filled with the Spirit. You can call it what you want, baptism of the Holy Spirit, filled with the Spirit, the coming upon of the Holy Spirit. Then they spoke with tongues and prophesied, and all the men were about 12. These 12 disciples went through an interesting order. Does it always have to be that order? Not necessarily. I think there are people that have been saved and then baptized and the Holy Spirit came upon them all in one important fail swoop. I've seen that in the water of baptism. I've actually seen that where a person says, "I accept Jesus as my savior," they're baptized, they come up, and the Spirit comes upon them and things start happening in their lives right away. But not everybody's that way and these guys are one example of that. Do you need to do what Paul did, to have somebody have the coming upon of the Holy Spirit to you? Do you have to have an elder or a pastor lay hands on you and pray for you? No. Is it a good idea? Yes. I'll tell you why I say that, because when you read the whole Bible and especially the whole New Testament, some people received the power, the coming upon of the Holy Spirit with the laying on of hands, and some people received the power of the Holy Spirit with no laying on of hands, but just the simple asking for that. So it's not a prerequisite for the Holy Spirit to come upon you to have the laying on of hands. However, often in the Bible like this, this is a great example where Paul laid his hands on them. Why does he do that? Is it the power of God flowing through his veins and the power went upon? Is that what happened? Not really. We're going to see something like that here in a minute or two. But actually, I think the laying on of hands is an interesting thing the Bible talks about. It's used in several contexts. Right here, the praying for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon someone. The laying on of hands is used when the presbytery, as Paul talks to Timothy about, when Timothy was being ordained as a pastor, they laid their hands on him and blessed him, prayed for him, and there was a laying on of hands to sign him on to the ministry. When we have an elder or a pastor, we get the leadership team around them, lay on hands, and pray the Lord would fill them and use them and empower them and give them wisdom. That's a biblical thing. Laying on of hands is a point of contact of faith. It's us agreeing together and saying, "I identify with you." There's an interesting laying on of hands in the Old Testament for you Bible students that's interesting. When you'd bring your sacrificial animal, the lamb, to the high priest there in the tabernacle or the temple, you'd walk up and Aaron the priest would lay his hand on the head of the lamb. Sometimes they'd lay the other hand on you and they'd pray and there'd be this transferring of your sin upon that sacrifice, which was another laying on of hands in the Old Testament. We don't do that today because of Jesus. He is the lamb and he already died for the sins of the whole world. So all that to say. So, Brett, you're saying that the baptism of the Holy Spirit or filling with the Holy Spirit is biblical. Yes. Why should I want that? What if I'm just happy with the with first and then the in? What if I'm just good with that? Well, you can do that, I suppose, and still go to heaven. But why would you want to do that? Why would you want to walk through this life with your own power? Many Christians are saved, but they're running around like flashlights with no batteries. What are the batteries for the Christian? To let your light so shine before all men, that's where the Holy Spirit comes in. That's the dunamis, the power. And so it's really important. You might say, "Okay, Brett, do I have to go to church on a Sunday night and have them lay hands on me and pray for me?" You can if you want and I think there's power and faith that's bolstered and helped as we pray for one another. But you also can pray by yourself. Remember what Luke 11:13 says about the coming upon of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" It's just that simple. You can just say, "Lord, I want you to fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit." I pray this daily, that the Lord will fill us with the Spirit. The coming upon of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit, simply comes by asking. How do you know if you have the Spirit in your life? Well, that's where you can look for 1st Corinthians 12, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I believe a lot of those are very supernaturally natural. Like I love a word of prophecy. Foretelling the future? No. What is a word of prophecy? Edification, exhortation, and comfort. 1st Corinthians 14. When did you just really wish you could give a word of comfort to someone but you had nothing to say? That happens to me all the time. I feel really clumsy when it comes around people that are grieving or going through hard things because I think I feel so bad for them, I just am searching for words to say. If I just do that in my flesh, I usually say the stupidest things. Do you know what I mean? Are any of you guys like that? You just say dumb stuff when you should be saying really comforting, loving things. That's where I say, "Lord, would you just fill me afresh with the power of your Spirit that I might speak a word of comfort." Ask the Lord for that. Or if you have to give a word of edification, build up someone, or exhortation, to correct someone who's off course. "Lord, fill me with your Spirit." That's a supernatural thing that the Lord will just speak into your life to give to someone else and I love it when that happens. How many of you have been speaking to someone and you were out of words, you didn't know what to say, and then the Lord just gave you the right words to say? That's the Holy Spirit doing the work in you. Speaking in tongues gets all the press, but it really shouldn't. It's the least of the manifestations of the Spirit. This is interesting, my old buddy Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he said this about this passage of scripture. I thought it was interesting, way back in London. He said, "Have you received the Spirit since you believed?" That's the question, of course, Paul asked. He said, "Beloved, are you now receiving the Spirit? Are you living under his divine influence? Are you filled with his power? Put the question personally. I'm afraid some professors, professing Christians, will have to admit that they hardly know whether there be any Holy Ghost at all. And others will have to confess that they have enjoyed a little of his saving work, yet they do not know much of his enabling and sanctifying influence." I love what he says here. He says so many Christians walk around knowing his salvation but not knowing his sanctifying and influencing and enabling work of the Spirit, and sadly a lot of Christians go around not having that, which I think is important. I think Spurgeon nailed it on that one. I think that's true. God forbid that you have a powerless Christianity. That's where the Holy Spirit comes in, there for the asking. Well, these 12 disciples are now brought up to speed on Jesus and on the Holy Spirit and the power, the coming upon. They're saved, so now they're legitimate 12 disciples who are now ready to roll, given the power to go and minister. I took a long time with that because there's tons of confusion on that and I hope that clarified some things on the Holy Spirit. Verse eight, it says, "And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the Kingdom of God." Disputing and persuading. Paul, who was once a Pharisee, brilliant, trained by Gamaliel, was probably able to hold his own when it came to debating these guys. It says here, disputing and persuading. I would have loved to be able to hear Paul dispute and persuade. What is Paul disputing and arguing with these people? Well, verse eight tells us, concerning the things of the Kingdom of God. Now what is the Kingdom of God? Well, the safest way to start defining the Kingdom of God is to have a kingdom you must have a king. And who is the king of the Kingdom of God? King Jesus. If you start with that, you're already on a good path. The reason I say that is because there's a worldview out there, dominion now or kingdom now theology, that basically argues that you and I as Christians, we need to usher in the kingdom. A lot of churches have gone this way, by the way. They've been convinced by college professors to get into this more "we have to usher in the Kingdom of God." Kingdom now. That means we need to get Christian politicians in office. You'll notice a lot of the kingdom now, they're the pastors that are really there, a lot of them, not all of them, but some of them are very much kingdom now pastors because they believe we have to usher in the kingdom. It's not going to happen. What's going to make the kingdom come? When God decides to do that. We are told to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." So we pray for his kingdom, but are we the ones that are going to usher in the kingdom? No. It's when the King comes. If you're careful in reading your Bible, when is the King going to come? It's going to come when things are in total chaos, when the world is in a total mess. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it's going to be worse time in the history of the world and there's been a lot of bad times in history of the world. But in Matthew 24, Jesus says it's going to be the worst of the worst time and that's going to make Jesus come and return at the very last moment to set up his kingdom. So it's very misguided to think we are going to usher in the kingdom. Jesus taught us the Kingdom of God is among you because we are his people. He is the king. So the Kingdom exists in that Jesus is King and we are part of his Kingdom, but his Kingdom literally has not yet been set up on Earth. It will be in the future. That's something we can look forward to, when his kingdom is set up. But this is why you get a little freaked out when you read a verse like Romans chapter 14 verse 17. It says, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." So this is mysterious. How does this define the kingdom? Well, the Kingdom of God, whether you're a follower of the King now, part of his kingdom even though it's not set up on Earth as it's going to be someday, we do get to enjoy his kingdom in that sense. Because do we have righteousness in Christ? Righteousness. What about peace? Do we have peace in Christ? Jesus said, "Peace give I to you, not like the world gives. I'm going to give you a real peace," and he calls it a peace that will pass understanding. That's because we're part of his kingdom even though it's not set up yet. So the Kingdom of God is not literal meat and drink right now, but it's righteousness, peace, and then joy. Where does the joy come from? In the Holy Ghost. That's why it's so important for you to have the Holy Spirit in you and with you so that you have that joy that comes from being in the Holy Ghost. The fruit of the Spirit, what is the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Do you want love? Do you want joy? Do you want peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, meekness? These are the kind of things you get when you have the Holy Spirit. The question is, are you walking in line with Jesus being your King even though his kingdom has not come yet on this Earth? That's the thing. If you feel like your walk is dry, maybe you need to have the Holy Spirit come upon you to add that joy in the Holy Ghost and all those things that come with that. Well, what was Paul preaching in the synagogue? The Kingdom of God and they were hearing and receiving the word and moving in the Holy Spirit. But Paul, verse nine, it says here, "But when divers," or some, "were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way," remember that's a name for Christianity, the way, "they spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus." Paul moves on because of the hardness of some of their hearts. Don't be surprised if you have a similar experience. If you're sharing the good news of the gospel and there's people that are hard against you, there's a point where you need to leave and not just stay. Some people do that. I've noticed people on social media will talk and chat till the cows come home and it's doing nothing other than letting all the trolls on the internet who love to debate Christians just go crazy. I feel like a lot of times you're throwing your pearls to the swine, which Jesus told us not to do that. You're taking all this love and care for social media people, but I think that a lot of that, I've not really met anyone. I'm sure there's somebody out there, but I've never met anyone who was saved by a social media chat. I'm not saying it's total without merit at all. I'm just saying I think we waste a lot of time. That's why Paul says, "I'm out of here. These guys are hardened and I'm not going to just waste the time with these guys." So that's important. Notice there in verse nine where it says the people spoke evil of the way. As I mentioned, that's a name for the church, but I love that name for the church because they didn't speak evil of the moment. What do you mean, Brett? Well, there's a difference between the way and the moment. Some people act like you becoming a Christian was a moment where you accepted Christ, which it is a moment when you accept Christ. But Christianity is not just a moment. It's also the way you walk, the way you live, it's the way you go. I like that title. The way, it's not the moment, it's a way of life and that's what's going to happen. The people were speaking evil of the way of life of these Christian people. I wonder if people could say that about you. Can people say, "I don't like your way of life because you're such a bold Christian"? That's what was going on here. I fear that a lot of us are so afraid of people finding out we're a Christian, they don't know there's any difference. But I don't think that's the way we're supposed to be. I think we're supposed to be bold and let our light shine before all men and be willing to speak the gospel. And you know, there are places and times where you can do that. I think the Lord calls you to different ways and different kinds. Maybe some of you are called to do that on social media. Maybe some of you are called just to go to work and be a follower of the way so that your people that work with you see Jesus in you. Was Paul being effective in his ministry? Well, let's read verse 10. This is an amazing verse if you think about it. Verse 10, it says, "And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia," that's again Asia Minor, like Turkey and Ephesus and all that, "those that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks." Did you hear what it said there? "So that all they which dwelt in Asia Minor heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both of Jews and Greeks." How's that possible? It's because the disciples started going out and spreading and the word of God was spreading like wildfire. So yes, Paul was successful in his ministry. Whenever everyone else is shining bright for Christ, it's amazing how bright a place can be. It shouldn't just be doing a church service here. We need to go out from this place and let our light shine. That's how you see the gospel grow like wildfire. That's what's going on here. While Paul was here, a couple of freebies for you. While he was here for the two-year period, during that time we know he penned 1st Corinthians and also he penned Galatians, wrote the book of Galatians during this two-year stint that he spent here. Verse 11: "And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." Huh? What's going on now? Brett, this sounds pretty supernatural. This is just supernatural craziness. What did they do? They took Paul's handkerchiefs and his Home Depot apron and what did they do? Well, it's kind of interesting because what are these handkerchiefs and aprons? Well, I find it interesting. The word handkerchief is soudarion in the Greek. It's a cloth for wiping perspiration, like a cloth used at the gym. So if you're at the gym and you have a towel with you, that's what they used. Now, why would he have a sweat towel? Because remember he would often make tents. He was a worker and worked with tents and leather. It was hot and he would wipe his brow with a towel and so then they'd take his towel and they'd go and touch people with it and they'd get healed. What's this apron thing? Well, the apron is simikinthion, which is a covering worn by a workman or a servant, so like a woodworking type apron or leatherworking, tent-making apron that he wore. Question, was it Paul's power that was healing the people? No. Whose was it? God or Jesus, one in the same, right? So another question, was it the aprons and the sweat towel that healed people? No. So then what in the world's going on here? It's the word faith. See, people are tended like, "I don't think God's going to heal me," but it is funny how the Lord can use a point of faith or a point of contact. It's a little bit like the laying on of hands I just told you about. When I pray for a sick person and I lay my hands on, is the sick person going to be healed because I laid my hands on them? No. But the laying on of hands is a point of contact saying, "We are going to pray together. I'm with you on this and I have faith and I want to help your faith by let's lay hands." That's why the Bible uses that laying on of hands kind of thing. It's not the laying on of hands that heals people. It's a point of faith, it's a point of contact. It's not Paul's handkerchief that's full of power. That's where sometimes I think the Catholic church with its relics gets a little bit sidetracked on relics. That's why at Aity Creek, we don't have relics here. That's why most of the Protestant church. Everybody got into the stuff too much and it's not about the stuff, it's about Jesus. We have to really be careful on that one. Now, before you start finding people's sweat rags and aprons and start rubbing them on people, was this something that we should do, start handing around sweat towels at Sunday night worship? No. Why not? You're like, "Because it's gross. I don't want anybody's sweat on me." No. I think we get off the hook a little bit here. Did you know that God does special things, special iterations, special dispensations of things in time? Whenever he wants to do stuff, he can do it. And at this time, at this time in history, God says, "I'm going to use Paul's handkerchiefs and his apron to be a point of faith for people to go. I believe in God because those were worn by Paul, who he believed in God." And people were healed by that, so it was a point of faith for them. But I want to draw your attention to a word there in verse 11 where it says, "and God wrought special miracles." The word "special" in the Greek is tunchano, which means in this case, not typical. It's not a typical thing. But it also means to hit the mark specifically. It was a specific thing, but not a typical kind of thing. So don't go passing around sweatbands and stuff like that. So it was a time and place God was using that. What is a biblical thing, object, that we use that is another point of faith? Oil. The anointing oil. If any's sick, call the elders and have them anoint you with oil. It's the same thing. Is there power in the anointing oil? No, but it is a point of faith. James 5:14: "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." So very important. People get all crazy. When you go to Israel, it's crazy. You get people getting the holy anointing oil from Jerusalem, from the olive trees in the garden of Gethsemane and literally people will pay tons of money for oil from an olive tree from the garden of Gethsemane. Now, if you want to do that just because it's fun to have some olive oil from the garden of Gethsemane, great. But if you think it has magical powers because you bought it from Gethsemane. Or people getting water out of the Jordan River. It's funny. They sell these vials of the Jordan River water and it's all clear and stuff. It's not. I think they poured Dasani in there because the Jordan River is really muddy. But anyway, I digress. Watch out for making relics holy. That's not really a biblical notion, but the Lord does use those as points of faith, which is kind of important.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador, pausing in our verse-by-verse account in today's word of Acts chapter 19, providing helpful insight on how God worked miracles at the hands of Paul during his missionary journey at Ephesus. And I hope you'll stay right there as Pastor Brett is going to share a little bit more about today's study in a moment. If you'd like more information about today's word or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett has joined me. And as we continue looking at the Apostle Paul's third missionary journey, we're seeing the impact that the gospel has on the people there. However, even as these people find salvation through Christ, Brett, not everything goes as planned, does it?
Brett Meador: Especially with poor Paul the Apostle. You're right, Kurt. In Acts 19, we see this amazing revival happening, so you get really excited about that. Lives are changing, idols are being abandoned, it's powerful. But at the same time, there's this huge resistance and really chaos that breaks out in the city. We live in Portland, Oregon and there's rioting all the time in our town and that's what happened in Ephesus with Paul. He had a huge riot happen at the theater there in Ephesus. Whenever the gospel genuinely changes lives, it often will disrupt the culture around it and not everyone is celebrating that truth. That's true today and definitely was true with Paul. It really encourages me just to be able to say I want to be like Paul, just keep impacting people with the Word of God and it changes people spiritually, economically, culturally. That's what happened there. The idol makers got upset because the gospel threatened their business. It was an economic problem that stirred up there. Money, pleasure, pride, all that materialism, the gospel disrupts that. So Paul would later write to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 3:12 that "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." So I think Paul knew that was coming his way. Sometimes Christians think difficulty means God isn't working, but I believe the opposite is true. And Kurt, when the gospel truly changes hearts, it creates ripples far beyond the church walls, don't you think?
Guest (Male): Yes, absolutely it does. Thank you, Pastor Brett, for that good reminder. And one more time, if you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of these messages online at todayswordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Acts and we'll see dramatic events during Paul's missionary journey to Ephesus, including a failed attempt by unbelievers to cast out a demon. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Aity Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.