Acts 19 - The gospel disrupts your life
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Bought a truck March 12 of 2020.
The next day, the world shut down because of Covid.
I don’t know where you land on the topic—Don’t care.
Send me an email, I wont read it.
Life as we knew it was different because we were all at home.
Many of us learned how to work from home
Many of us learned how valuable toilet paper was
Many of us learned what Zoom/Facetime was.
Holidays with family was complicated that year.
Hilary tells everyone she’s been to the same church camp since she was 3 (except for 2020).
Covid changed the landscape of our lives!
In some places, it was illegal to sneeze
Some people still flinch.
In a moment, we see how our lives can be dramatically changed.
Throughout the book of Acts, we’ve seen similar changes.
One after another, we recount how many people’s lives had been interrupted by the gospel!
Big Idea: The gospel disrupts your life
Big Idea: The gospel disrupts your life
Stand to read
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. 2 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.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 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.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all. 8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
Leader: This is God’s Word.
Everyone: Thanks be to God.
Explanation
The “disciples” that Paul found had heard that there was a Messiah coming.
They’d heard John the Baptist talk about repentance.
They had believed as much as they had been taught to believe
But they didn’t have the full story.
Something led Paul to ask these spiritual questions.
Paul may have saw something in the way they lived, how they talked to one another.
Something was not consistent with biblical Christianity.
These guys were “almost Christians.”
They hadn’t heard of the cross, the resurrection.
The Holy Spirit did not dwell within them.
Paul asked and they hadn’t even heard of the Holy Spirit.
Paul explained the gospel to them and then the Holy Spirit brought them to life in Christ (v. 6)
Church this shows us,
The gospel disrupts what we know
The gospel disrupts what we know
More often than not, religious people (like these guys) are unconverted people.
They know the lingo and the expectations of believers, but they don’t have a relationship with Jesus.
Popular cults like Mormonism, Christian Science, are examples of this.
Those who attend religious events but can’t articulate the basics of the faith or show any evidence of being followers of Jesus.
This is why we must explain the gospel to religious types.
These guys have some form of religiosity but Paul could see that they hadn’t been changed internally.
When they were changed by the gospel, they had a new character and identity in Christ!
Their affections were changed toward Jesus, not begrudging rule following.
We truly change when our hearts change.
I learned this in middle school.
In elementary, boys often think girls are ucky, then one day you think, “… I want one of those.”
The day of epiphany
I took a shower, deodorant, nice clothes that don’t have ketchup stains.
Get a job, become a man.
These hear the gospel and then the Holy Spirit immediately starts moving in them.
The outward signs confirmed the inward spiritual reality that had taken place in their hearts.
They immediately started showing fruit of the Spirit.
Have your affections been changed for Jesus?
Does your life reflect the presence of Jesus?
Transition
This Ephesus becomes Paul’s focus for two years.
He starts in the synagogue, like usual
The Jews resisted so he moved to this lecture hall—The Hall of Tyrannus.
After two years, “all the residence of Asia heard the Word” (v. 10)
11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 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. 13 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 Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.
Explanation
Okay, what a job title.
Anyone looking for a side gig?
“Itinerant Jewish exorcists”
Anyone ever been told to “get a real job”?
Also, “The Seven Sons of Sceva” sounds like a heavy metal band.
The Ephesians were attracted to sorcerers, so these guys were able to take advantage of that for gain.
These guys hear that miracles and healings are being done through Paul that they start incorporating Jesus’s name into their Harry Potter routine.
They attempt to cast out a demon in Jesus’s name
15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”
First off—Ouch. What a diss.
That’s such a humiliating question
In the Gospels, we see where demons and evil spirits cower to Jesus’s authority.
The demon points out that Jesus is more powerful than demons, and Paul is associated with Jesus
These dudes have nothing over the demon because these wizards don’t belong to Jesus.
Then things go really bad for them.
16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
If you start a fight wearing pants… And when it’s over, you no longer have pants on… There is no, “You should see the other guy.”
Being Jewish men, and sons of the high priest, being naked in front of other people is far worse than being wounded.
Having a black eye after a fight is better than having your socks literally knocked off.
This demon revealed them as imposters.
They’re empty and idolatrous hypocrites!
Their fakes and liars.
Fake spirituality is no threat to demons.
There are many even in our day that use the name of Jesus without really knowing Jesus.
They want a Jesus you can use, not a Jesus who saves.
The Lord will not allow Jesus’s name to go without praise.
So this news reaches all of Ephesus.
17 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. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 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 fifty thousand pieces of silver.
The Holy Spirit convicted many people in the city because of their idolatry.
They tried mixing Jesus with magic
When Hilary and I got married, there were some big changes
I had an Avenger’s bed spread
WWE replica championship was proudly displayed in the center of the house
Silverware wasn’t in the right drawer
I thought all those things were incredible and I was super proud of them.
I thought it’d be easy just to add a wife to the mix.
It was not.
Getting married disrupted my bachelor life.
I had to change how I decorated and where I put my silverware because I could not mix the my single life with my married life.
They tried adding Jesus to their worship of idols and magic.
So when the truth of the gospel came, they confessed and got rid of everything that led them away from Jesus.
The value of what they burned showed the power and the worth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is worth more than all of these things!
They through away fifty thousand pieces of silver because the God’s Word is better.
This shook the cultural landscape of the city!
People were throwing their magic books away and burning their shrines!
This was a major spiritual breakthrough!
But there were some that were affected that didn’t want to be.
23 About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.
Demetrius doesn’t see the beauty of this situation at all.
He sees cliental and money leaving his shop.
He sees this as a financial crisis.
He financially benefits when people worship false gods
So he calls all the guys together.
25 These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. 27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”
The city is buzzing.
There are those who are radically angry because of this major spiritual breakthrough
Those who reject the good news of the gospel started a riot.
32 Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.
Greek word: Facebook.
There are those who are overflowing with thankful joy because they’ve been forgiven!
The gospel had disrupted this entire city.
The gospel disrupts how we live today.
1. The gospel leads us to genuine repentance
1. The gospel leads us to genuine repentance
True repentance is costly and public.
Coming to Jesus shows a true turning from the things that kept us from Jesus and a turning to Jesus.
Notice that they don’t just give their books away—They destroy them.
Their sin doesn’t become someone else’s problem.
When we truly see that value of the cross, we begin taking things like this so much more seriously.
When our hearts are changed, we don’t simply want to add Jesus to our sin
Jesus came to take our sins away.
This was the entire purpose He came.
Gospel presentation
We were so sinful and wanted nothing to do with God, so dead in our sins that we didn’t know we were in danger.
God’s wrath was coming for our idolatry, our mockery of God, our sin.
But Jesus came so that we can be made right with God again through faith!
On the cross, Jesus did not die so that we can have an excuse to sin
Jesus died so that we can be excused from our sin.
We get to leave it because Christ has taken it onto Himself.
Jesus triumphed over our sin when He came out of the grave!
Repentance is not a bludgeon
Repentance is an invitation back to life.
Sin leads to death
Repentance leads to life, joy, and peace in Christ.
Some of you here not Christians.
Like the Ephesians, you’re trying to mix Jesus with something else.
You need to lay it aside and say “I want true life in Christ.”
Not a Christian, believe in Jesus and receive the life He freely gives.
Forgiven of everything.
Brought to life in Christ
Transition
Paul brought the gospel to Ephesus and it caused a big disruption.
Lawrenceburg has so many people that have not been introduced to Jesus.
This city, this area, needs disrupted by the gospel.
Church, that’s where we come in.
2. The gospel leads us to be gospel-disrupters
2. The gospel leads us to be gospel-disrupters
This doesn’t mean that we want to be uncharitable/unloving/unwelcoming to our neighbors.
The Enemy has lulled many people into believing false things about God.
I want to disrupt the darkness that has captured this area.
I want to be an issue for hell to take ground in our area.
I want to see God’s Kingdom grow here in Lawrenceburg.
Covid changed the landscape of our world.
Our political sphere, financially, socially.
There wasn’t anything that Covid didn’t effect.
What if Graceland Church did the same?
What if we changed the landscape of this community?
What if we disrupted the divorce rate?
What if we disrupted the incarceration rate?
What if we disrupted the homeless rate?
What if we disrupted the lostness rate?
Take the Next Step
Take the Next Step
Identify what is keeping you from Jesus, and repent of it.
Write down: Someone’s name