Sermon Tone Analysis

NOW THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

GOING DEEPER

A while back I was having trouble with one of the programs that I use in relation to my business.

It kept me giving me an error message.

Try as I might, I couldn't figure out how to make it work.

Finally I admitted defeat and called technical support.

The first question the support rep asked was, "Which version are you using?"

"I'm using version 3.9," I answered.

"3.9? Are you serious?

We're on 5.2 now.

Let's bring your software up to date and see if that solves the problem."

Sure enough, it did.

It's a pretty basic concept in business software: If you don't have the most recent version, you're bound to run into incompatibility problems from time to time.

You need to be up to date with the latest information to keep things running smoothly.

Last week we began a series called Now This Changes Everything.

We talked about the problem of living in today's world with yesterday's mindset.

We now live in a New Covenant Reality — a Resurrection Reality — but if we try to live by old covenant standards, or if we live our lives as if Christ is still in the tomb and he really doesn't have power over sin and death, then we find ourselves frustrated, full of fear, and missing out on all that God has for us.

Now, today there are many people who are sincere followers of Christ, but they're not quite up to date with everything they know, and everything they believe, and everything they've experienced in their personal relationship with God.

It's like their current version isn't quite up to date; they're still trying to get by on 3.9.

Today we'll look at a couple of stories in the book of Acts that illustrate a similar problem.

There were people who believed in Jesus and were following Jesus — but they weren't quite up to date in their spiritual lives.

As we move our way into these stories, I will say that each of them open up some doctrinal questions and theological questions that we could spend a substantial amount of time debating, such as: Are we to be baptized in one name or three?

What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

Is there such thing as a second act of grace?

What about speaking in tongues?

Of course, we have a position on each of these questions — and not all denominations agree with us all the way down the line.

For those who like to hear sermons that give you ammunition to argue with people from other churches, today's message will disappoint you, because I'm not going there.

Instead, we'll look at these stories and say: How do the events of and 19 illustrate the experience that many believers have today in their spiritual lives?

Debating doctrine may be fun, but I believe that the lesson these two stories have for us today is that there are some among us who are missing out on the fullness of life in God — the abundant life that Jesus promised his followers — and they're missing out because of what they don't yet know, and what they haven't yet experienced.

If you have ever wondered, "Why doesn't the Christian life work for me the way I have seen it work for others?"

If you have ever wondered, "Why don't I have the power in my life to do what I believe God wants me to do?"

If you have ever said to yourself in despair, "There must be more than this!" ... Then today's message is for you.

Today's sermon will get you started on the path to living your life in the fullness of God's presence.

Now, let's take a look at these two stories.

They're two separate events, but they're tied together with a common theme, so we're looking at them together.

THE STORY OF APOLLOS

The first story is about a named Apollos.

He was from Alexandria, which was known as the intellectual center of the ancient world.

It would like saying today that someone is from Cambridge, or someone is from Wheaton.

Apollos was from Alexandria, but he was now living in Ephesus.

The Bible says that he was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of Scriptures.

He had been instructed in the way of the Lord Jesus, and he spoke about him with great knowledge and great passion and great boldness in the local synagogue.

But, the Bible says, Apollos knew only the baptism of John.

This is the book of Acts' way of saying that Apollos didn't have full knowledge of all the teaching related to death and resurrection of Jesus, and he didn't know all about the new life that we can experience in him.

At this same time there was a married couple living in Ephesus named Priscilla and Aquila.

They had probably been saved under the ministry of the Apostle Paul, and most certainly were discipled under him, and they became prominent leaders in the early church.

After Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos speak, the Bible says that ...

... they invited him to their home and explained the way of God more adequately.

Other translations say, "more accurately."

In other words, they brought him up to date.

Now, the result in Apollos' life was that God used him in an even greater way, and he became known throughout the church as a defender of the faith.

He could, quite possibly, be the writer of the book of Hebrews.

THE STORY OF THE DISCIPLES IN EPHESUS

A short time later, Paul came through Ephesus and met up with some disciples there, and this is where our second story begins.

When he met them, he asked them: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"

Their response was, "We have never even heard of the Holy Spirit."

Paul said, "What baptism did you receive?"

They said, "We received John's baptism."

In other words, John the Baptist.

Apparently, at this time there were disciples scattered throughout the Roman world who, like Apollos, had been followers of John the Baptist, and had heard about Jesus — enough to know that he was the Messiah and that he is the one whom we should follow .

Maybe they knew about his death, and maybe they had even heard about his resurrection, but they didn't have the full and complete story of what the death and resurrection of Jesus was all about.

Luke refers to them as disciples — in other words, believers — but it was, as yet, a less-than-complete form of discipleship.

And then Paul brought them up to date.

He told them all about Jesus, all about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and he baptized them into the name of Jesus.

And then he laid his hands on them, and prayed for them, and they received the Holy Spirit, and they began to prophecy and speak in other languages.

Now, back in the day, churches used to split over verses like this one, because of the "speaking in other languages" part.

I think we've outgrown that today, and we are able to respect those who views may be somewhat different than ours.

The real sign to note here is that these disciples experienced the power of God, and they began to prophecy in his name.

Now, in this story, as in the story of Apollos, we see an example of disciples who were living in a state of not-quite-there-yet.

They were trying to live an incomplete kind of Christianity.

I would say that today there are many church people like Apollos, who know some of the story — and like Apollos they're even fervent in what they know — but they do not yet know the rest of the story.

And I would say that today there are some in the church who are like the disciples that Paul encountered in Ephesus.

They know some of the story — enough to call themselves disciples — but they have yet to experience the fullness of the Spirit-filled life.

The result is that they often find themselves asking, "What is missing?

Where is the power I need to get by?

Why isn't the Christian life working for me the way I have seen it work for others?"

Today I want to present three choices you can make that will help you discover a satisfactory answer to these questions.

These three steps will resolve once and for all the what-is-missing-from-my-spiritual-life dilemma.

In fact, I would say that no matter where you are in your Christian experience, these three steps will work for you.

They'll help you move forward in your life as follower of Jesus Christ.

Here's the first choice.

1.

It's time to go deeper in your knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Apollos knew the Bible, and he knew it well.

Keep in mind, of course, we're talking about the Old Testament.

The New Testament was still being written.

However, the Old Testament has much to say about Jesus, and Apollos had already been instructed, Acts says, in the way of the Lord.

He knew a great deal about Jesus — Acts says that he "taught about Jesus accurately."

It also says that he spoke with "great fervor."

Fervor, in the Greek, means boiling.

In other words, he was passionate.

But he didn't yet know all that he needed to know.

It was time to go deeper.

And that's where Priscilla and Aquila come in.

They taught him the way of God "more adequately."

This brings us to an important quality that we need to learn to imitate.

Apollos was not only knowledgeable, he was teachable.

This is a rare combination.

In every church I have served there have been at least one or two who had just enough knowledge about spiritual things to think that they knew all that they needed to know.

I've known church people who cannot learn from their pastor, cannot learn from their Sunday School teacher, cannot learn from their Bible study leader — because they think they know more than anyone else.

End of story.