So we're continuing John's study in the book of Acts. He asked me to cover Acts
chapter 19, and the title of the series is Brave Faith. And the big idea for
this morning is that brave faith requires biblically correct. Information and
God honoring courageous action. It requires at least those two things to have
brave faith and it's not just biblical information it's biblically correct
information and it's not just courageous action as we're gonna see as we go
through this passage, it is God honoring courageous action. At Mission Grove,
John has mentioned it several times. We have 5 values here at Mission Grove, um,
and they are biblical truth. Authentic community. Empowered service. Joyful
generosity. And life transformation. And so this morning as we look through Acts
chapter 19, uh, there's two of those um values that we're gonna focus on, and
they include, um, biblical truth and life transformation. What we have is, by
the way, um, just as a reminder, the book of Acts was written by Luke. Luke
wrote his gospel and an adjoining book. Most biblical scholars believe that
these books were circulated together, that it was a two volume set, Luke and
Acts, and the important thing to remember if you're here and you go, you know,
I'm a little skeptical on that Bible stuff, why should I believe that? Uh, Luke
was not writing a book of the Bible. That wasn't his intention. He didn't think
he was writing a book of the Bible. Luke, if you look at the beginning of Luke
chapter one and in Acts, he was writing history. He says I'm, I'm, I'm searching
out the best information, eyewitnesses, and I'm going around and I'm gathering
all that information and I'm writing verifiable history. And and so that's
important for us to remember as we look at this and we go and I'm not sure that
really happened. Luke said, I talked to people. You see, and if you go through
the book of Acts, one of the things you see is the pronoun changes. It it goes
from as at the beginning, he goes, they did this, they did that, they did this
and all of a sudden the pronoun changes to we. And so we can pick up from that
that somewhere on this journey Luke became a follower of Jesus Christ and a a
partner with Paul and he traveled with Paul and saw many of these things happen
and he recorded them as history. So if you have your Bibles, turn to Acts
chapter 19. And the first thing we're gonna look at is an account that we find
in verses 1 through 4. And it says this while Apollos and we have met Apollos
before Apollos was this dynamic speaker. Have you ever been around uh someone
who is just, oh my goodness, they started talking and everybody got to the edge
of their chair and it was just so amazing, um, and they listened. Um, I, I
remember the last church I was at, um, our elders had, uh, called in a, a
professional person to help, um, our, our pastor with his preaching and, and so
he showed up but he showed up on the wrong day. He, he showed up when I was
preaching. And he says, well, I, I'm, I'm not here for you, but as long as I
just heard you, do you wanna meet during the week? And I go, yeah, sure, I'll
take your pointers, whatever it is. Uh, and so we, we sat down during the week
and he said, Dan, I just got to tell you. I try to get guys to preach the way
you do. I'm telling you my head is going. I'm going, you know, Billy Graham, uh,
what, what. And he goes, you were right at a 6th grade level. And I'm going,
that was one of my deep ones. But Apollos was a guy who just inspired people
when he got up and spoke and so he was an amazing guy um and it says Apollos who
had been part of the church at Ephesus was at Corinth now and he was helping
that church. And he says Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at
Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, Did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you believed? They answered, no we have not even heard that there is
a Holy Spirit. So Paul asked then what baptism did you receive? John's baptism,
they replied. Paul said John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the
people to believe in the one coming after him, that is in Jesus. So the first
thing we pick up from this story is that they had incomplete biblical
information. And one of the things that we learned is that incomplete biblical
information can lead Christians to make some wrong conclusions and in this case,
the wrong conclusion was that repentance was enough. All you have to do is be
sorry for your sins. Just say I'm sorry, you know, there's some who are here.
The guarantee in a group this size or online. There are those of you who that's
as far as you've gotten. In your Christian walk. You feel bad for your sin.
Almost every day you confess it again. Say, Lord, I'm struggling with this. I
asked you to take it away, please. And over and over and over again you're
you're you're you're repenting, you're repenting. You know, sometimes there are
churches that have altar calls, and one of the things that I've noticed in those
churches is that frequently it's the same people who come forward week after
week after week. Because they're going, I just, I'm so sorry for my sin. And
that's important. Repentance is important, but it's the starting point. It's not
the ending point. And it says that he had met these guys and they said that's
all we know. We just know John's baptism where you, you're supposed to feel
sorry and we do for our sin. And that can lead you to believe that repentance is
enough, that's all you have to do. Um I don't think that that's biblically
accurate, um. He goes on and it says this. On hearing this, they were baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy
Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesized. There were about
12 men in all. You, you need to understand that the church at Ephesus was a big
church. Um, in churches of the day, it was one of the larger churches. And out
of that larger church there were 12 guys. They could have sat right here in
these 4 row 4 seats and 3 rows. They could have sat right there. And it was just
these 12 guys that when Paul interacted with them, he picked up quickly. That
they were sort of stuck in this repentance mode. But they didn't seem to have a
lot of the joy in their life. Um Jesus promised us his joy and that our joy
would be. Where Our joy would be full. That's what he wanted. He, he wants
believers who don't look like they were. Weaned on a dill pickle. You know, and
sometimes there's just Christians, we just look grumpy and sad. Because you know
we just we can't stand the sin in our life but we're supposed to move beyond
that. And come to the place that we're filled with joy. And so it tells us in
this passage. That Paul baptized them in the name of the Holy Spirit. Somebody
shout, no, that's not what it says. It says he baptized them. In the name of
Jesus. So he baptized him in the name of Jesus and laid his hands on them and
they spoke in tongues. Here's the second thing that I think we can get incorrect
today. And it's, it's not only that repentance is enough but there are
Christians, maybe family members of yours maybe some who are here who think
tongues are required there's others of you here who. I know a wonderful thing.
You, you don't even know what tongues are, um, tongues show up in the Bible a
few times. And it they show up at times when people need to have a sign that
drives home a point. So the first time we see tongues is in in the book of Acts
when the church got together and the Holy Spirit came on them. And they began to
speak in tongues, languages in that case that they didn't know but the other
people when they got out on the street and they're speaking in languages that
they didn't know all these people from around the world were gathered in
Jerusalem and they're going, I had no idea that he could speak Algerian. I had
no idea that he could speak Polish. I had no idea that he, he knew French. They
were speaking in languages that the people understood, but they didn't
understand them. And so that's the first time, 2nd time we find it is, is in an
interesting situation. Remember the vision that That Paul had uh that Paul Peter
had where he sit up on the roof and and he goes into a trance and uh a sheet
comes down with all the kinds of food that the Jewish people weren't allowed to
eat so all of all of this food that was unclean um came down and a voice came
and said Peter, get up and kill it and eat. And Peter goes, not me, man. I'm a
good Jewish boy and I don't eat that kind of food that's unclean and the boy
said, don't call anything I've made unclean. And so the vision happened again
and Peter said again. No, I don't eat that, and it happened a 3rd time. And the
3rd time that it happened there was a knock on his door and there were some
Gentiles outside and they said our master Cornelius. Wants to, uh, wants you to
come and talk to him. And so Peter went there and gave one of the most dynamic
inspiring messages you have ever heard. Do you know how it began? It began with
and literally you can look this up in the book of Acts. It began with you, you
do realize we shouldn't be with you kind of people. How does that inspire you?
We're not supposed to be with your kind. So why did you call me here? And and he
goes on to talk to them a little bit and all of a sudden. They start speaking in
tongues. It was like Peter's going, oh, no, no, what do I do? These Gentiles
have become believers and I can't deny it because they're experiencing the Holy
Spirit the same way we did. And and one of the most humorous things in the book
of Acts is Peter going back to Jerusalem. And the Jewish people in Jerusalem.
Good news travels fast. They had already got word that some Gentiles that Peter
had baptized some Gentiles, so they were waiting for him when he got home. And
they said, what are you thinking? Gentiles? Peter goes, Guys, it's not my fault.
I was, I was just talking to them and the Holy Spirit fell on them. Do you see
why it was necessary at that point? It it was just a a reminder, it was a way of
showing that God's power and God's desire to save people was way beyond just the
Jews. That God had a desire to reach all men. At all times And, and so when he
came to Ephesus, Ephesus was probably the most important church in this region,
and there was a group of people, by the way, Apollos. For a while believed that
you just had to repent. And these men seemed to have been followers of his and
they went. No, I think repentance is enough and the Holy Spirit came on them and
they experienced new life like they had never experienced before they needed
that. The problem is, is when we require it for everyone. Listen, Paul, Writing
in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, he says this are all apostles. So the question is,
are all apostles? No, OK, are all profits. No, you, you can respond here. uh,
are all teachers. No, do all work miracles? No. Do all have gift of healings.
No, do all speak in tongues? No, Do all interpret. So Paul's whole point in
writing to the Corinthians and the Corinthians were struggling over spiritual
gifts. And and by the way you're going, I don't even know what my spiritual gift
is you I keep hearing about it. Can I tell you that uh. Uh, Pastor Kurt leads a
class on, um, next steps, and one of the classes deals with spiritual gifts. And
he talks about them. He gives a survey, um, and you can literally discover what
your spiritual gift is and then the beauty with Pastor Kurt is that he'll sit
down with you and he'll say maybe here's an area of ministry where you can use
that gift. So if you're at all interested again on that card and just drop it in
the slot in the back just say um next step class and Pastor Kurt will contact
you, let you know, give you more information about that. But it's important for
us to know. Our spiritual gifts. You do realize what the role of the pastor is
in the church, right? It's to do all the things that you don't want to do. Thank
you. I'm glad you don't believe that. Because in Ephesians chapter 4 it
specifies it very clearly. For there are apostles and prophets and evangelists
and pastors and teachers to. Equip the saints. To do the work of ministry.
That's the role that's the responsibility. Is to help you discover those
spiritual gifts, help you find ministries that you can pour your life into and
find incredible meaning. That that really is the role of leadership in a church
is to help the saints and by the way. Look at the person next to you, OK? You
you right now and say you're a saint. For some of you, that's the first time
they've ever said that to you. We're the saints. We're the saints And and our
our responsibility is to help you discover those gifts. Here's what Paul says.
In Romans, another large church with great influence. In fact, it, it was this
verse when I was in seminary, I decided to do a report on the Holy Spirit and
what I did is I developed a survey and I went to several different churches and
said, uh, would you answer my survey? And I, they would all say yes and they
would answer the survey. I went to one charismatic church and the pastor says,
Why do you want to know about the Holy Spirit? You don't even believe in the
Holy Spirit. And I go, actually I do. Uh, and he says, well, do you speak in
tongues? and I go, no. He goes, well you have to speak in tongues to know if
you're a Christian. And, and I said, well, you do realize there's lists of gifts
in the Bible that don't include tongues. He goes, no, there's not. I said, well,
let's look at Romans chapter 12. And Paul writing to the Romans says we have
different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying,
let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If
it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is
contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is
leadership, let him govern diligently. If it's showing mercy, let him do it
cheerfully. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Do
you see tongues in there at all? Not once. So I, I share that with you because
some of you will never have a conversation about this again this will go out of
your mind and that's just fine. I'm OK with that. But there's some of you who
have Christian family or friends who are telling you even now. That in order to
really know that you're a Christian, you have to speak in tongues that's
biblically inaccurate information. It's just not true. And and so, um. and if
you're a person who's really striving to live for Christ and you hear stuff like
that, it, it can become discouraging and I don't want you discouraged. I want
you to have confidence in your faith that Jesus Christ is enough and whenever
people add something on top of grace. You you need God's grace and we're in
trouble, OK? So it doesn't matter what it is. It's God's grace and don't dance.
That's really easy for me. Um, but whenever we add something else to grace, it
creates a problem. So that's the first scenario we find in in the book of Acts.
The second one we find in Acts chapter 19 verses 13 to 20. It says some Jews who
went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus
over those who were demon possessed. They would say, in the name of Jesus whom
Paul preaches, I command you to come out. Seven sons of Skiva, a Jewish chief
priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, Jesus, I know,
and I know about Paul, but who are you? Then the man who had the evil spirit
jumped on them and overpowered them, uh, all he gave them such a beating that
they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. when this became known to the Jews
and the Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name
of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came
and openly confessed their deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought
their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value
of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. In this way, the word of the
Lord spread widely and grew in power. You know, it seems to me that. These sons
of Skiba. These sons of the chief priest. We're pretty courageous. There's
there's not many of us running around and saying, what are you doing Friday
night? Wanna go look for some evil spirits? Wanna go find some demon possessed
people. That's what these guys did. And they got there, found a guy. And they
said How did, how did they phrase it? They put it this way. It it says in the
name of Jesus whom Paul preaches. I, I've shared this in our men's Bible study
several times, uh, that we use in the name of Jesus in our prayers, kind of like
Abracadabra. You, you know what I mean? I mean, it's sort of like. You know,
Jesus Please heal grandma of You know what she's going through, help her get out
of the hospital and help my son uh do well in school and help us financially
amen no not amen not amen in in Jesus' name, amen. And we kind of tie it in
Jesus' name and and it's sort of like we, we take the Bible. And, and we go go
in Jesus' name. And it just becomes Meaningless magic. Do you know, in Jesus'
name is significant. It is significant. It's not an incantation of, of some
magical words. If, if I'm coming in someone's name, what am I doing? I know I'm
coming because they've sent me and they've said here is what I want you to do.
Here is what I want you to say. So the first thing we have to do, if we're gonna
pray in Jesus' name, is we need to know what it is that Jesus wants. It's It has
not been often. That I've prayed for healing. Over a person without saying.
Lord, right now it's my will. That they be healed But what's more important is
what's your will. And I know your will is that in the midst of whatever they're
going through. That they'll have an opportunity to talk to doctors, to talk to
their family, and that you would use this situation, Lord. To glorify yourself
that somebody might come to know you. Do I know that that's consistent with
God's will? That we use every difficult experience we go through to honor God,
then we know we're praying in Jesus' name. Do you get what the problem was? They
didn't know Jesus. They, they were, they wanted to cast out demons. Because it
was God honoring? No, because it was they honoring they love to do things that
would attract attention to themselves and so they went out there and they went.
Let's go do this. And it didn't go well. And and you know there are, are, are
people who do things that they think. Our God honoring. I had a, a guy went on a
trip. To Tijuana. And We encouraged him. As well as all of us don't drink the
water. And he goes, no, I can drink the water. God's gonna protect me. He was so
sick. It was just unbelievable. And and it turned out that really he wanted to
say was, I need you guys to look at me and what I do. No, it's courageous
behavior, courageous actions. That are God honoring. And so we do see some
courageous God honoring actions here but it's from the people. It's says many of
those. Who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. That takes
courage, doesn't it? Takes courage to confess this is what I'm doing. I remember
when I made my commitment to Christ and. I, I had been, I believed in Jesus for
years. But I just didn't want to give up my friends. And one night I'm laying in
bed and wrestling and. I said, OK God I'm I'm gonna take my life. And I sensed
God say, then go upstairs and wake up your father and tell him what you were
doing tonight. And I'm going, Lord, that seems like a really bad idea. I said
this is going to be the shortest conversion there's ever been. And and and yet
after wrestling with God for a while, that's what I needed to do. I needed to go
upstairs and wake up my father. And tell him what I had been doing. It, it, it
broke him up. Um For, for some of us. We have to. What these people did, they
burned their scrolls, they burned their idols and the things that they
worshiped, they destroyed them. and I believe that there's probably some of us
here who have those things in our life and we're hanging on to them. It says
that they came to 50,000 drachmas. A drachma was a day's wage. I kind of looked
up what's a day's wage today, multiplied at times $50,000 and came out to be
like $1.6 million worth of stuff. In this city of, of Ephesus and they came and
they burned it. And and that's life transformation, friends. Um Some of you here
have some things in your life. That you're you're hanging on to. Maybe it's a
relationship. Maybe it's a relationship at work and nothing's happened yet, but
you just dancing so close to the fire and God is saying you need to burn that
up. And maybe there's some who are here who are into pornography and you, you're
going, you know what, I know it's not what God wants, but well, things aren't
going so well at home or I'm single you know it's not what God wants it's not
God honoring. You need to burn it up. There there's some of you who maybe maybe
that thing is your anger. Um, people have talked to you about it, and you,
you've confessed it as sin, but now you just need to burn it up. I don't know
what it is for you. But I'm positive you know as you're sitting there right now
something's come into your mind. It may be a habit, it may be uh chemicals it
may be I I I can't even think of what it might be, but you know. And like these
people of Ephesus. We need to burn it up. And so that's gonna be part of our
challenge today. Um, we want God honoring courageous action. And oftentimes that
is dealing with the not God honoring stuff in our lives. There's one final
section here real quickly. In Acts chapter 19 verses 23 to 27, about that time
there arose a great disturbance about the way. What a cool name that was that
was what Christianity was known as, uh, at the beginning it was called the way
Jesus had always talked about to walk and it's to walk in the way so their name
became the way there was a great disturbance about the way a silversmith named
Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis. So clearly a religious guy uh
brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together along
with the workmen and related trades and said, men, you know we receive good
income from the business and you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced
and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the
whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is
danger not only that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited
and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and
the world will be robbed of her divine majesty. Here are people who are about to
do a very courageous thing they're gonna form a mob. They're gonna go after
Paul. He's gonna have to get rescued by an authority from the city. John's gonna
be sharing more about it, but does that courageous action make any sense? No,
because it is not God honoring it's not biblically correct. And so we can do
things. That are not biblically correct and they're not God honoring courageous
and those things are never gonna bring us into a place where where we we have
this this strong faith. The faith that you really want. And so my challenge to
you this morning is real simple. Are there areas of your life where God is
prompting you? To burn things up. Are, are there areas? And are you spending
time in God's word in a way that you can. Find here is what it accurately says
biblically is correct. And and when we study God's word, my friends, when we
examine it, it becomes crystal clear it really does um frequently sometimes
people think that the Bible is so deep. The Bible here's why the Bible can be
confusing. Just for two basic simple reasons. Number one, it was written in
another part of the world in a different language and it was written a couple
1000 years ago. So we have to discover what did it mean then. And when I
understand that, then I can come over here and I can apply it to my life. But I
got a dig to find what did it mean? Some things are crystal clear, other things
get caught in the language, you know what I mean? Where we go, ah. I did I
didn't understand that that's what it was saying. So I don't know where you're
at. I don't know you if if you're plugged into a small group, I would encourage
you to get plugged in to a group where you're with other believers who are
studying the word. Uh, do you need to find a place where you could serve, um,
not because. Mission Grove needs more workers. It's because God has gifted you.
He's gifted you and you're never gonna experience the joy that you really want
until you find that area that he's prompting you to serve. So we're gonna bow
our heads right now and we're gonna, we're gonna pray. Could we all stand and do
that and then when we're done, the praise band's gonna come and lead us in a
closing song. Father, I thank you for the. Just, uh, the, the willingness for
these people to, to listen. And I pray Lord that your word has spoken clearly to
us. I pray, Lord, that we would see that there are areas in our life. That um
are destructive. They're not God honoring. And I pray Lord that you would help
us right now to see those things to change those things to allow your Holy
Spirit to transform our lives and Lord, every one of those things is in your
word that that's what you want and so we pray in confidence that we are praying
in your name Jesus. Amen.